The Israeli media reports that Avram Grant has agreed a three-year deal to become West Ham manager. Grant, who resigned from Portsmouth last night, will be paid 1.3 million pounds a year at Upton Park.

Grant returned home to Israel yesterday and is not expected to fly back to England until the end of the month ahead of signing the contract at Upton Park on June 1st. However, sources in Israel do not rule out an official announcement from the Premier League outfit before then.

Grant and his agent Pini Zahavi thrashed out most of the details of the new contract with West Ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold on Wednesday. Zahavi has remained in London to finalize some of the technical details.

Grant was reportedly told that the West Ham job was his if he wanted following Gianfranco Zola's dismissal earlier this month. However, the Israeli insisted on waiting until after last week's cup final in which Portsmouth lost 1-0 to Chelsea before conducting negotiations.

It now also seems that Grant had been holding initial talks with Liverpool about the possibility of replacing Rafa Benitez should the Spaniard move to Juventus. But Benitez's move to Italy never transpired.

Grant has also turned down offers from Celtic and Dutch champions Twente Enschede.