FORMER Rangers defender Gordan Petric has entered the race to become the new manager of Kilmarnock.
The 48-year-old is currently in charge of FK Rad after spells at Serbian sides Sindelic Beograd, Zemun and Cukaricki in recent years.
Since stepping into the dugout, he has enjoyed a string of successes in saving clubs from the drop whilst working with limited budgets.
And Herald Sport understands that Petric is on the list of candidates to replace Lee McCulloch at Rugby Park as he looks to clinch a return to Scottish football.
The likes of Jim McIntyre and Gary Holt have been linked with the position in recent days but Petric has now emerged as a contender for the post.
Academy Director Paul McDonald has been placed in charge of first team affairs and will take his side to Firhill this weekend to face Partick Thistle.
And it is understood that the Killie board are in no rush to do a deal as they continue to consider their options over the key appointment.
Petric, who was part of Rangers’ nine-in-a-row winning side and also had spells at Dundee United and Hearts, moved into management five years ago after stints as general secretary and vice president at Partizan Belgrade.
And in an exclusive interview with Herald Sport in May, the former Yugoslavia internationalist admitted he would consider a return to Scotland to continue his coaching career.
“If somebody gave me a choice between working in Spain and working in Scotland I would choose Scotland,” he said. “It was a great time for me.
“I saw a totally different side to the game from when I had played with Rangers, Dundee United and Hearts when I was the general secretary at Partisan.”
Petric has spent time with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti in recent years in a bid to expand his knowledge of the game.
And now he could put his experiences to good use at Rugby Park if he is given the chance to save Killie from the Premiership drop.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here