Earlier today in Belgrade, FK Partizan Belgrade's coach Miroslav Djukic stepped down from his post and all but confirmed speculation that he will be announced as the new head-coach of the National Team.

Djukic has been in charge of first placed Partizan for sometime now and while he was expected to be the front-runner of the Serbian National Team position, he was stating that he wanted to continue his tenure with the Belgrade club and lead them to their first title in nearly 4 years. Most thought that the Serbian Football Federation was planning to announce an interim head-coach and to announce that Djukic would be the coach in June, but the resignation today means that Djukic will probably be announced formally as the new National Team coach sometime later this week or after the Orthodox Christmas (Jan 7th).

Djukic took over Partizan after gaining some success with the U-21 National team. His tenure with Partizan led them to a 2nd place finish last season and this year, they finished the 1st half the 2007-08 season with a 6 point lead over Red Star Belgrade. This season, Partizan have been incredible both offensively and defensively, scoring a league leading 40 goals and only conceeding 13 goals. Their +27 goal difference is 11 goals better than Red Star's +18. The only bump in Partizan's season was their dismissal in the UEFA Cup after crowd disturbances ruined their chances of progression in Europe. In fact, his performance in 2007 was rewarded by being named Serbian Coach of the Year.

His decision to leave his post comes to a bit of a surprise to me. With the form of Partizan it looked likely that Djukic would want to continue at this position, win his first trophy as a coach and have the possibility of adding 'Champions League Coach' to his resume. For some, the prospect of coaching a national side is something incredible, some might feel that he still has not proven himself in the domestic game to warrant a reward with the National team.

While it still is not official, it should be no surprise that this move does seem to point to an announcement from the FSS. There might be talk about Djukic's pedigree as a coach, but unlike Dejan Savicevic, who took over Yugoslavia with no previous coaching experience, should be able to run the National Side effectively. His experience with domestic players will allow for the development of the Domestic league and home-grown players.

In my eyes, I still think Djukic decision for himself was premature. If I was him, I would have played out the season and waited to see what happened in June and July. But unfortunately, this was a Catch-22 situation, had he stayed on until June then he might not be selected as for the National Team.

For Partizan this decision does come at a decent time considering the situation. With the Winter Break in effect, the  club has time to appoint a new coach before the season re-starts in February. Chance are that they will spend the next two weeks looking at canidates and making their decision in the New Year during their winter Training sessions.