Try as you may to be patient and give him a fair crack of the whip, in the back of every Leeds United fans’ mind is the nagging fear David Hockaday is drowning at Elland Road.

However much the perpetually optimistic try to rewrite history and dismiss his failure at Forest Green Rovers by pointing to some ultimately trivial differences between his respective job titles, David Hockaday had never been appointed by a Football League club because David Hockaday failed when he got the chance to prove himself.

His job, like the job of every manager (or ‘head coach’) is to pick a starting XI and set tactics to overcome the opposition and it’s the result of those decisions which should determine how far you go in this game. At Forest Green Rovers, managing one of the most well-funded clubs in the Conference, he almost led them to relegation. Twice. On one occasion only avoiding it on a technicality.

And it doesn’t matter how much you want to paint over that fact and try to put a positive spin on his CV, the Forest Green Rovers part is his most relevant experience. No other club of Leeds United’s size is hiring a manager who was a perfectly good coach but ran a much smaller club into the ground when given the chance to step-up because that would be mental.

Hiring David Hockaday was mental.

I don’t blame David Hockaday for one second though. He hasn’t lied his way into the job or pretended to be something he’s not, Cellino got hold of his CV, spent a couple of hours with him moving salt shakers around a table and decided he’s the man for the job. Somehow failing to recognise that when it comes to football, we all talk a good game – because that’s the easy part! Producing a good game is where it gets tricky and in that respect, Hockaday was already known to be lacking.

So if you want to play blame games, it starts and ends with Cellino for he’s the one who bought a Ferrari and gave the keys to Maureen Rees.

What Leeds United have always needed is a Lewis Hamilton, albeit a much cheaper one. A Daniel Ricciardo if you will, someone whose ambition and self-confidence is matched by a proven record at lower levels and is deserving of the step-up. Someone who the press and fans won’t immediately raise doubts about due to his total failure elsewhere. Because however much some of you want to try to minimise that failure, it’s highly relevant, will be brought up constantly and does effect the players.

We’ve seen professional footballers lose confidence in experienced and successful managers quickly enough, but it’s a hell of a lot quicker when the players already have their doubts, the system isn’t working, we’re getting embarrassed on home soil by Brighton and the person leading them can’t point to previous successes to offer reassurance.

Hand-on-heart I’ve tried to give The Hock a fair chance, you need only look at how positive I was trying to be following the lucky win at the weekend, but he hasn’t made it easy with embarrassing displays against Millwall and Brighton and a very fortunate win against Middlesbrough who were running us off the park until a perfectly good goal was disallowed and they let their heads drop.

Why are any of us continuing with this charade when we know Hockaday has zero chance of lasting the season and is going to be replaced soon enough anyway?

My mate brought his young lad last night, who despite being about 40 years The Hock’s junior and having no experience (unless you count the Football Manager game), still managed to call the problems we’d have the second he saw the line-up – no width and a weak midfield too easy to dominate and overrun.

Little smartarse though he may be, he didn’t nail the prediction because he’s the next Jose Mourinho, he’s simply seen a few Leeds games and could spot the glaringly obvious flaws in The Hock’s masterplan – as could every other fan inside Elland Road. And that begs the question, why couldn’t David Hockaday?