Watford appoint Serbian manager Vladimir Ivic as new head coach on one-year contract

Championship club bring in little-known Serbian manager to take charge

Lawrence Ostlere
Saturday 15 August 2020 14:23 EDT
Comments
Vladimir Ivic has managed PAOK and Maccabi Tel Aviv
Vladimir Ivic has managed PAOK and Maccabi Tel Aviv (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Watford have appointed Serbian manager Vladimir Ivic as the club’s new head coach on a one-year deal with the option of a further year, the Championship club have announced.

Ivic, 43, made eight appearances for what was then called Serbia and Montenegro as a player, and spent the majority of his club days at Partizan Belgrade in the Serbian capital. He has previously managed Greek side PAOK and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning the Greek Cup in 2017 before back-to-back league titles in Israel.

Watford were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the 2019-20 season after a campaign in which three different managers took charge. Javi Gracia was the first top-flight manager sacked and was replaced by Nigel Pearson, who was also sacked with two games remaining. Hayden Mullins took over in a caretaker role but failed to keep them up.

Ivic, who left Maccabi Tel Aviv at the start of July, has only four weeks to prepare his new side for the Championship campaign.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in