The Appointment of a New Coach Nears (Maybe)

After a couple weeks of quiet, rumors have suddenly started erupting in the international media about who is going to be appointed to the Serbia bench.

Yesterday, the reports were all about Italians who, given the frenzy surrounding Fabio Capello’s arrival in England, are evidently all the rage these days. Not to be outdone, the FSS are supposedly considering two of them: Arrigo Sacchi and Giovanni Trapattoni, both of whom had long stints with the Italian national team (the Azzurri reached the final under Sacchi in 1994, only to lose to Brazil in penalties). In addition to their international experience, both men have had great success at the club level, Sacchi with AC Milan, and Trapattoni primarily with Juventus, who won six Scudetti and and two Champions League titles during his 13 years in charge.

Since resigning as Director of Football with Real Madrid, Sacchi has mostly just be engaging the the sort of punditry to which legends are entitled, while Trapattoni is currently in charge of Red Bull Salzburg. As far as I know, neither has commented on the rumors, and since they came from Spain’s Marca, which seems to make up at least 50% of its content, we should do well to take them with a really, really big grain of salt. (That said, most of Marca’s lies have to do with Real Madrid, so it would be sort of odd if they’d just pluck this one out of thin air.)

Marca’s credibility aside, though, their story could well be moot, because Miroslav Đukić — one of the names associated with the Serbia job from the moment it came open — has resigned as coach of table-topping Partizan Belgrade. Apart from that old “I want to spent more time with my family” chestnut, Đukić gave management another reason for his decision: “He has been approached with a very enticing (career) offer and we wished him the best of luck in his future endeavors.” Oh reeeeeeally? Gee, I wonder what that offer could be!

Partizan are in no hurry to replace Đukić, since the second half won’t open until February, but it sounds like the FSS might have a slightly different timetable in mind. What do you think, Monday for the announcement? (I mean, he couldn’t possible have quit for something else, right?)