We all knew it was coming, but it still seems harsh to sack David Hockaday after such a short time, especially after he was clearly let down by a couple of key players in his last two matches.
It was always a strange appointment, and Cellino is probably the only person who though it was going to work. But even when Hockaday took charge he said that Coaches are like water melons, you never know what they will be like until you open them up, and soon after he humiliated the Hock by saying he needed a nursemaid. Yet I always thought the coach would get more than six games to try to prove himself.
A terse statement of the official site said ‘Leeds United can confirm that David Hockaday’s contract with the club has been terminated with immediate effect. David’s assistant Junior Lewis, who arrived with Hockaday on June 19, will also leave his position at the club’
And Cellino added "I’d like to thank David for his efforts over the last two and a half months but the results since the start of the season have meant we needed to act and make this decision. After the defeat at Bradford I realised that my decision to keep David at the club following the defeat at Watford was wrong and I had to change my mind on the coach’s position. As a club we will now begin our search for a new head coach.”
Although Cellino had changed his mind about sacking Watford on Saturday the writing was clearly on the wall during the Bradford game when the Sky cameras picked him out in the crowd looking clearly cheesed off, then showed he had left before the end, even when Leeds were pressing for an equaliser.
Yet in one respect it’s a surprise that the announcement has come now, as Cellino admitted that at Watford we were in the game when we had 11 men on the field and that it’s not the coach’s fault if a player lets him down with a piece of ill-discipline. And surely last night was exactly the same, with Leeds at least matching Bradford before Murphy’s stupidity at launching into two rash tackles after losing the ball through his own lack of control.
The players all said they liked Hockaday’s coaching, and the way they played in most of the games didn’t indicate that there was any team spirit lacking in the camp. But apart from the results Cellino might have been irritated that the Hock wasn’t using many of the players he brought to the club, with only one non-British player in action last night as the coach fielded a side mostly signed by the two previous managers.
This is one obvious problem with a system where the club owner chooses which players to sign but asks another man to run the team. If the coach doesn’t want the players the President has signed he won’t pick them. So how will Cellino find another manager willing to work with him under this system. There must be every chance that the next coach will be an Italian yes-man who will doff his cap to Cellino and tolerate his many changes of mood.
Neil Redfearn will take charge of the first team until a permanent replacement is appointed, and that in itself is a worry, as his two previous temporary spells in charge weren’t exactly a roaring success. OK, we’ve only got Bolton on Saturday, and I’m told by the trotters fans in my office that they’ve been dreadful so far, but Brighton had lost both games before we met, and then managed a comfortable win at Elland Road.
We can but hope a decent coach arrives soon, but I fear we could well be down in the bottom three before things start to turn around.