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

Vladimir Ivic has managed PAOK and Maccabi Tel Aviv (Getty Images)

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.