Gianfranco Zola might not have the headaches which go with splashing £30m on a single player and more than £200m on building a team.

But the West Ham manager insists he is under just as much pressure as Manchester City boss Mark Hughes.

The two old pals and former Chelsea team-mates meet at Eastlands on Monday night with Hughes eager to throw off the disappointment of defeat in the Manchester derby and Zola anxious to prove he is also assembling a decent side.

The difference is that while Hughes has access to the deepest pockets in football, Zola is scrimping along.

Zola says: "Both of us are under pressure for different reasons. He knows with the budget and the team he has got he has to produce results. But I have to produce solutions and that is a pressure as well.

"I am coping with the job and the situation is making me more creative, more responsible. It is a good challenge. A positive pressure.

"I like to work with the players and make them improve. And to build a team. I wouldn't mind some money to spend on a good player. It would make the process a little quicker. But I don't mind, I like what I am doing and this team has got a future."

It is a typically phlegmatic approach from a man who has impressed in his first 12 months as a manager in the Premier League.

Zola is as intelligent, even-tempered and astute as a manager as he was a player. Totally bewildered, too, at the journey he and Hughes have made from training partners at Stamford Bridge more than a decade ago to managers in the big-time.

Did such a thing ever cross his mind?

"Absolutely not," says Zola with a chuckle as he recalled grafting through training sessions with Hughes in the 1990s. "It was difficult for me to imagine myself as a football manager. Mark was unbelievable on the pitch in those days. It was my fortune as a footballer to have him on my side.

"On the training ground he was the worst training mate I have ever had in my career.

"But he is doing very well in his job. He did well at Blackburn and when he was with Wales. I have only admiration for him as a footballer and a manager."

In fact, Zola and Hughes were part of a Chelsea team which has given the game a handful of bosses including Gus Poyet, Dan Petrescu, Dennis Wise and Zola's assistant Steve Clarke.

Zola says: "That team was made up of intelligent people. You could see when they went on the pitch they didn't need to be told what to do. They were thinking players. It is not a surprise to see many of them doing the job as manager."

It has not been going so well for Zola so far, however, this season.

The Hammers have not won since the first weekend, have four points from five matches and on Monday face a City side who many believe could break into the top four this season after coming back to equalise three times before going down 4-3 at Old Trafford last Sunday.

Former West Ham striker Craig Bellamy scored the two best goals of that match, before being enveloped in controversy when he struck a fan who had run onto the pitch.

Zola says: "That's Bellamy. He is somebody who has a lot of character. Sometimes his reaction can be quite spectacular but he is a very good boy and a wonderful professional so I forgive him for that.

"I had wonderful times with him. He was honest. He said he wanted another experience and I respect that.

"Since he left he has been 100% professional. For me as a manager he did fantastically well."

Zola is pondering handing striker Guillermo Franco his Hammers debut and believes the 32-year-old Mexican can have a major impact.

"Franco knows the game very well and we need that because we are a young team," said Zola. "To have someone who reads the game like him is massive.

"I have got a good feeling about this team. I see them progressing. This team is going to be a surprise."