Gianfranco Zola has admitted that his ill-fated spell in charge of Birmingham City last season was "very hard to take".

The Italian was installed at St Andrew's in mid-December following the surprise sacking of Gary Rowett, who had left the club seventh in the Championship table - outside of the playoff places on goal difference alone.

Zola went on to record just two wins from his 24 games in charge before he was axed, leaving Brum to fight a relegation battle and only securing their safety on the final day of the season under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp.

"I went into that job with a lot of passion, with a lot of enthusiasm and obviously the way things went, it was very hard to take," Zola told talkSPORT.

"I went into a difficult situation. I was asked to change a few things, actually I was asked to change a lot of things, but unfortunately for me not everybody wanted things to change, and that wasn't easy.

"It is what it is sometimes. Football is difficult and you have to face the reality. I think in this case I have to take the responsibility that I should have faced the reality a little bit earlier than I did.

"Now, I think I will take a little bit of time off to reconsider a lot of things and then I will see if I can face another challenge with the same freshness and with more ideas."

Prior to his time at Birmingham, Zola had managerial stints at Watford, West Ham United and Cagliari.