BY PAUL LAGAN.
Gianfranco Zola is heading for showdown talks with boss Gianluca Vialli, which could see the Sardinian be the first major casualty of the season.
Zola is desperately unhappy at the prospect of starting the season down the striking pecking order.
With £5.4m summer buy Pierluigi Casiraghi starting out as number one striker, Zola will find himself up against World Cup stars Brian Laudrup and Tore Andre Flo - not forgetting Vialli himself.
Zola is aware of Vialli's new- found philosophy of player rotation and is not happy with it.
Last season when Ruud Gullit was sensationally sacked and replaced by Vialli, the Italian professed his dislike of the rotation system, but eventually turned full circle and adopted it.
Now he is taking it a stage further and has openly challenged dissidents to accept it or leave.
Vialli told me after Saturday's 2-0 win over Kingstonian: "Players have been told that there will be rotation this season. Anyone who upsets the team spirit this is creating will not be forgiven."
Zola has fully accepted this but is upset: "Players need to play all the time in order to find their form," he said. "I understand having a rest can be good."
Zola will attract bids from a host of Premiership sides, including Everton and West Ham. But he looks set to return to his home town club of Caligari.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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