Vladimir Ivic will be named as Watford's new head coach on a two year deal in the coming days.

The Serbian coach left his post at Maccabi Tel-Aviv earlier this summer having led them to back-to-back titles and now looks to be the man tasked with trying to guide the Hornets back to the top flight following their relegation.

Watford have been without a full-time head coach since Nigel Pearson was sacked back in July after a defeat away at West Ham United, with assistants Hayden Mullins and Graham Stack taking over on a caretaker basis for the final two games of the season.

>> Keep up to date with all the latest Watford FC news on our new Facebook page

The Hornets are set to return to training next week and should have Ivic in charge for their first season back in the second tier in five years, with the 43-year-old looking to build on his already impressive reputation.

After leading PAOK to the Greek cup in his first season in charge as a manager, he moved to Tel-Aviv where he claimed consecutive league championships having lost just eight games out of the 91 in which he took charge.

Watford held talks with Ivic last week before making the decision that he is the man to take the club forward after also approaching Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber.

The Tykes manager would have cost the Hornets around £1.2million pounds in compensation.