DAVID Hockaday remains in the frame to be named as the next Leeds United boss.

Left field chairman Massimo Cellino is understood to favour an out-and-out coach with responsibility for solely preparing the team for each and every game and Hockaday is fitting the bill after coaching Watford to the Premier League in 2006, ironically beating Leeds in the play-off final.

Six leading bookmakers have made him the favourite or joint favourite for the position ahead of the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Benito Carbone and Gianluca Festa.

The north-easterner spent four-and-a-years at the managerial helm at Forest Green from February 2009 to October 2013 before parting company with Rovers by mutual consent.

He was previously at Watford, Southampton and Reading and implemented the first football academy in the country at Cirencester College.

He was linked with the Swindon Town post after the departure of Paolo di Canio in February 2013, a season which saw Rovers narrowly miss out on the Conference Premier play-offs.

As a player, Hockaday was a rightl-back with Blackpool, Swindon, Hull City and Shrewsbury Town before retiring in the mid-nineties.