Leeds United entered into the summer with the takeover of the club by 49ers Enterprises for £170m as they bought up the rest of former owner Andrea Radrizzani’s shares.
Shortly before that was made official, head coach Daniel Farke was appointed to be the first manager of their tenure in full control of the Whites.
The German tactician, formerly of Norwich City in England, has won ten of his first 18 matches in charge of the club and has only lost four times to date – a win rate of 55.6%.
Leeds are third in the Championship and have won nine of their 16 league matches – a win rate of 56.3% – and this shows that the ex-Borussia Monchengladbach coach has enjoyed a strong start to life at Carrow Road.
49ers will be hoping to avoid some of the mistakes that have been made by previous owners with managers. Massimo Cellino, in particular, struggled in this area, with the appointment of Dave Hockaday being a notable low.
Dave Hockaday’s record at Leeds
The Italian swooped to appoint the former Stoke City defender from Forest Green Rovers ahead of the 2014/15 campaign and provided him with a two-year contract.
Journalist Phil Hay had it put to him that a “little-known” coach would be brought in, which proved to be the case when Hockaday was snapped up from non-league football.
It was a bold appointment by Cellino, given the English tactician’s lack of experience in senior management at Championship level, and it did not work out for either of them.
Hockday only managed six competitive matches at the helm and produced two goals and four defeats from those outings – a dismal win rate of 33.3%.
He was sacked on the 28th of August in 2014, after two-and-a-half months in the job, and Cellino revealed at the time that the head coach should have been relieved of his duties after a 4-1 defeat to Watford on the 23rd of that month, with the benefit of hindsight.
Leeds and Cellino chucked the ex-Forest Green Rovers boss into the deep end and did not give him much time to adjust before making a swift decision on his future, as they admitted – by sacking him – that their gamble did not pay off.
Dave Hockaday’s current job
At the time of writing (23/11/2023), Hockaday’s LinkedIn profile states that he currently works as the Head of Football at the South Gloucestershire and Stroud College in Bristol.
He has been there since January of 2017 – almost seven years ago – and his last role before that was as a first-team coach with Coventry between July 2015 and December 2015.
The 66-year-old coach has boasted the success of his work at the college by mentioning that former pupil Antoine Semenyo went on to sign a professional deal with Bristol City.
He completed a £10.5m transfer to Premier League side Bournemouth at the start of this year, and Hockaday seemingly played a key role in his early development.
Whilst Hockaday has not been able to forge a successful career as a professional football manager, it is pleasing to see that he is still working within the footballing world and having a positive impact by developing young players at the college to help them make it in the game.
