Former Partizan Belgrade midfielder Ivan Tomic has taken over as coach of the Serbian champions from Ljubinko Drulovic after a turbulent opening half of the season.
"We thank Drulovic for taking the job under difficult circumstances," the club said on their website on Tuesday.
"He was guided by the club's best interests throughout and handed over the position to Tomic knowing that we fully appreciate his positive approach."
The 39-year-old Tomic, who made five appearances for the former Yugoslavia, is Partizan's third coach this season.
Drulovic took over from Zoran Milinkovic in October but failed to make an impact, with fourth-placed Partizan trailing bitter city foes and league leaders Red Star by 26 points at the December-February winter break.
After making a fine start under Milinkovic in the Europa League, Partizan failed to reach the knockout stages after a dramatic 3-1 home defeat by German side Augsburg with Drulovic in charge.
Partizan's board quit under fan pressure while Drulovic kept his job for two more league games before an interim group appointed Tomic, who was the club's sports director from 2007-09 after retiring as a player.
Tomic, whose 1998-2003 spell with AS Roma was plagued by injuries, faces the immediate task of trying to keep top performer Andrija Zivkovic.
According to media reports, wealthy European clubs including Manchester City are sizing up the talented 19-year-old winger.
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