Milanic prepares to extend positive vibe created at Leeds by caretaker Redfearn

The 46-year-old stepped down as head coach of Austrian Bundesliga outfit Sturm Graz over the weekend after being targeted by Massimo Cellino as the right man to succeed Dave Hockaday.

Providing there are no late hitches, Milanic and new assistant Novica Nikčevič will meet the squad today and start preparing for the weekend trip to Brentford.

Cellino is understood to have first spoken to the Slovenian nine days ago after an exhaustive trawl through a long list of potential candidates.

Milanic – considered something of a playing legend at Sturm Graz after seven years with the club that included a couple of league titles and passage to the Champions League knockout stage – liked what he heard and subsequently activated a clause that allowed him to buy his way out of a three-year contract that still had more than 20 months to run.

He did then take Graz’s league clash with Ried – they beat the bottom club 1-0 – before saying his goodbyes and preparing for a new life in England.

The club he will find is very different to the one that said its own farewells to Hockaday in the final week of August.

Back then, United were reeling from an often chaotic summer and had just been dumped out of the Capital One Cup by League One Bradford City.

With the Elland Road club sitting fourth bottom after three losses in their opening four games, it looked like being a very long season.

Since then, however, there has been a remarkable turnaround with interim manager Neil Redfearn having inspired a four-game unbeaten run that has yielded 10 points.

That has been enough to power United back into the top half of the Championship and considerably lifted the spirits of supporters, who have been delighted to see how the summer signings from abroad have started to make an impact.

Goalkeeper Marco Silvestri already looks a bargain signing at £400,000, while at the other end of the pitch both Souleymane Doukara and Mirco Antenucci have opened their Championship scoring accounts in the past week.

Redfearn has also been getting the best out of players already at the club, with Stephen Warnock finally showing his true form at left-back and Lewis Cook already looking a star in the making despite being just 17. Several others also seem to have been given a new lease of life of late.

Milanic’s task now is to harness this new found positivity and keep pushing Leeds forward.

He certainly arrives with a CV boasting success, albeit most of it in his native Slovenia with Maribor – a club who enjoy a dominance similar to that of Celtic in Scotland since the demise of Glasgow rivals Rangers.

A former Slovenia and Yugoslavia international, Milanic – who speaks five languages, including English – won nine domestic trophies during five seasons.

His time in Austria, however, has been far less of a success with Graz finishing fifth in the 10-team top division. They were also knocked out of the Europa League in the second qualifying round by Iceland’s Breidablik. This time around, Graz sit sixth with 11 points from nine games.

As for his playing style, followers of Milanic’s career suggest he favours a rigid 
4-4-2 set-up, demands the same tireless work ethic he possesses and is regarded as something of a conservative manager.

How this final point will tally with Cellino’s love of flowing football remains to be seen but, as United’s first manager from outside the UK and Ireland, the appointment of Milanic seems certain to be a fascinating affair.