Muslin announces squad for Cyprus, Israel and Russia friendlies.

Goalkeepers: Vladimir Stojković (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Predrag Rajković (Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel), Damir Kahriman (Crvena Zvezda), Aleksandar Jovanović (Radnički Niš).

Defenders: Antonio Rukavina (Villarreal, Spain), Milan Rodić (Krylia Sovetov, Russia), Aleksandar Kolarov(Machester City, England), Filip Mladenović (Koln, Germany), Slobodan Rajković (Darmstadt, Germany), Matija Nastasić(Schalke, Germany), Nemanja Milunović (BATE Borisov, Belarus), Uroš Spajić (Toulousem France), Branislav Ivanović (Chelsea, England),Nikola Maksimović (Torino, Italy).

Midfielders:: Luka Milivojević (Olympiacos, Greece) Saša Zdjelar (Olympiacos, Greece), Nemanja Gudelj (Ajax, Holland),Nemanja Matić (Chelsea, England), LJubomir Fejsa (Benfica, Portugal), Marko Grujić (Crvena Zvezda), Sergej Milinković-Savić (Lazio, Italy), Dušan Tadić (Southampton, England), Adem LJajić (Inter, Italy), Nemanja Maksimović (Astana, Kazakhstan).

Attackers: Zoran Tošić (CSKA Moscow, Russia), Lazar Marković (Fenerbache, Turkey), Andrija Živković(Partizan), Filip Kostić (Stuttgart, Germany), Nemanja Mihajlović (Partizan), Aleksandar Mitrović(Newcastle, England), Nikola Stojiljković (Braga, Portugal) i Andrija Pavlović (Čukarički).

Here we go again

It's time once again for the annual tradition know as the "Serbian National Team Fresh Start". That's right buckle up, here we go again on another "rebuild". Radovan Curcic has been relieved of his duties as national team manager and The Serbian Football Association (FSS)  has started the search for Serbia's 6th manager since 2011. That number almost seems too ridiculous to be true but sadly it is. You would be hard pressed to find another national team in the world that has more turnover and less continuity than Serbia.

Radovan Curcic is a very quiet and pleasant man but it was clear from the begging that he did not possess the experience, quality or authority to be a senior national team manager of a country that has ambitions of qualifying for a major tournament. The highlight of Curcic's club coaching career was leading FK Javor Ivanjica to a mid-table finish in the Serbian Superliga. His other major managerial achievement came when his very defensive counter attacking tactics took Serbia U21 to the 2015 European U21 Championships; which he does deserves credit for. Curcic's resume speaks for itself but I don't want to criticize him too much because it's not his fault that he was hired to do a job that he wasn't qualified for. That blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the Serbian FA, who  continue to mismanage the national team.

 Firing Curcic is the right decision but it's hard to feel confident about the next hire when you look at FSS's history of incompetence and terrible decision making. In a shocking turn of events FSS has for once, not fired a manager right before the start of a qualifying campaign so the new bench boss will actually have four months and four friendly matches to build a team for the start of World Cup qualifying in September. On the other hand this also gives FSS enough time to fire the new manager so who the hell knows what will  happen before the Qualifiers start.

The main name being mentioned as Curcic's replacement is 62 year old Slavoljub Muslin. He is well respected in Serbia and last coached Belgian side Standard Liege for a brief period in 2015. Muslin is very experience and has managed in Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium and Ukraine among others. He would certainly bring more knowledge and authority than Curcic but he's bounced from club to club and hasn't really had a lot of success in his career. Serbian media are reporting that his hiring is all but official so we may soon find out if he's the man that can save this sinking ship.

Another name being mentioned is former national team and Serbian football legend Dragan Stojkovic. The beloved "Piksi" has had a successful coaching career in Japan and is currently the manager of Chinese side Guangzhou R&F. He would be a great choice and the Serbian public would love to see him at the helm of the national team but Stojkovic does not have a good relationship with the leadership of FSS (and who can blame him) so it's doubtful that he would want to work for them. He also had bad experiences as Serbian FA and Red Star Belgrade president in the mid 2000's and many speculate that he doesn't want to return to Serbia as a result.

The final name is a familiar one. FSS would love to bring back former Serbia manager Sinisa Mihajlovic but he looks set to take over Lazio and it's highly unlikely that they can lure him away from Serie A millions. Mihajlovic led the national team from 2012-2013 and just when he seemed to have Serbia on the right path he bolted for a job at Sampdoria despite pleas from FSS for him to stay.

Whoever the new manager ends up being will have a lot of work ahead of him. Serbia is coming off the worst qualifying campaign in the countries history and there are many serious issues that need fixing. The atmosphere in the squad is terrible, the fans have no faith in the national team, the players have shown very little discipline or desire and the heads of FSS are absolutely clueless. The talent is there but so many other things are not. The odds are heavily stacked against anyone who decides to take on this task. If the new manager does end up being Slavoljub Muslim, I wish him all the luck in the world because he will undoubtedly need it.