Zola has seen West Ham both win and lose since taking charge

West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola has been given assurances by the club he will be able to sign players during the January transfer window if he wants.

The Hammers may have to pay Sheffield United more than �30m in compensation after an independent tribunal ruling against them in the Carlos Tevez case.

But Zola told BBC Sport: "I've been assured by West Ham chief executive Scott Duxbury it will not be a problem.

"It will not affect us if we want to do changes in January."

West Ham are understood to have a wage bill approaching �50m a year, with Lucas Neill, Kieron Dyer and Craig Bellamy on bumper pay packets.

That spiralling salary bill allied to one of the biggest first-team squads in the Premier League, was part of the reason West Ham sold John Pantsil, Bobby Zamora, Richard Wright and Anton Ferdinand during the last transfer window.

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However the Hammers have insisted that concerns over the tribunal ruling, which they plan to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over, were not behind their decision to sell players.

The Hammers beat Newcastle 3-1 in Zola's first game in charge last Saturday, but on Tuesday the Italian suffered his first defeat as West Ham were beaten 1-0 by Watford in the Carling Cup third round.