The Leeds United head coach role will be Javi Gracia’s 14th job in the 19 years that have passed since his retirement from professional football. He has spent most of his time coaching in Spain but he clearly isn’t afraid to travel for work.
Throughout his career he has had spells in Greece, Russia and Qatar, while he spent 20 months in charge of Watford in the Premier League. Gracia will be relying on all that experience as he strives to keep Leeds in the Premier League and take them out of the relegation zone.
But, how has he found himself at Leeds? Here, Leeds Live take a look back into the Spaniard’s history and where things went either right or wrong in his most recent jobs.
Read more: Georginio Rutter and Brenden Aaronson among Leeds United players Javi Gracia can galvanise
Early days
Retiring as a player in 2004 after his final season with Cordoba, Gracia returned to former club Villarreal to begin his coaching career, taking charge of the youth side. His first senior job came with Spanish third tier outfit Pontevedra, where he claimed play-off spots on two occasions before moving to Cadiz.
He took Cadiz to the second tier before losing his job the following January as the club struggled for traction in the Segunda Division. Gracia returned to Villarreal to take charge of the reserve side, who were competing in the Spanish second tier at the time, before moving to Greece.
Olympiacos Volos was the club, but he lasted just four games in charge. The coach enjoyed an unbeaten start to life in Volos, winning three of his opening four games and things were looking up. That was before the club were expelled from the Greek top flight and the Europa League following their alleged involvement in the Koriopolis match fixing scandal.
He saw out the season with Corfu outfit Kerkyra before returning to Spain to take charge of Almeria. Gracia led the second tier club to promotion, via the play-offs at the first time of asking, but he didn’t stick around to coach them in the top flight.
Instead, he took charge of Osasuna, his eighth job in as many years. However, he failed to keep the club in the top flight, finishing below Almeria, and left after one season to join Malaga.
2014 - 2016 - Malaga
After climbing to the heights of the Champions League, Malaga were on the decline by the time Gracia arrived. Their debts had seen them banned from UEFA competitions, while stars such as Isco, Joaquin, Julio Baptista, Javier Saviola, Willy Caballero and Roque Santa Cruz had left the club.
As such, they had to be frugal in the transfer market, but Gracia had enough to lead the Andalusian’s to ninth in the La Liga table. Another exodus followed in the summer, with the club selling the likes of Sergi Darder, Nordin Amrabat and Samu Garcia and they endured a difficult start to the season as a result, sitting rock bottom after 13 games.
However, Gracia managed to lead the side out of the mire with a four-game winning streak over Christmas and they kicked on in the New Year to finish eighth, just four points shy of a European spot. His work at Malaga didn’t go unnoticed and in the summer of 2016, he made the switch to Russian club Rubin Kazan.
2016 - 2017 - Rubin Kazan
The Spaniard found life a little tougher on the other side of Europe and while he did take the club to the Russian Cup semi-finals, he could only secure a finish of ninth in the domestic competition.
As such, he left by mutual consent after just 12 months in the job. Kazan finished 10th the following season under the stewardship of Kurban Berdyev.
2018 - 2019 - Watford
Gracia had six months out of work before landing in Hertfordshire, taking the reins from Marco Silva, who left with the club sitting 10th in the table following a run of one win in 11 league games. Gracia’s first game against Stoke City ended a goalless draw, but his Vicarage Road bow brought an emphatic 4-1 thumping of Chelsea.
Further home wins came against Everton, West Brom and Newcastle as the Hornets went on to finish 14 th in the Premier League, eight points above the drop zone. Gracia couldn’t have started the next season any better, winning Watford's first four league games and taking them to third in the table.
They settled into steady form throughout the season and spent most of the campaign in the top half before eventually finishing 11th. However, Gracia’s real success that season came in the FA Cup, taking Watford to their first cup final since 1984.
Gracia’s side lost 6-0 to domestic treble winners Manchester City at Wembley, but just making it that far was seen as a success. Despite the cup run, he lost his job just four games into the next Premier League season, having picking up just one point. Watford went through four managers that season before being relegated to the Championship.
2020 - 2021 - Valencia
The manager’s time at Valencia was tough, it’s fair to say. His arrival at the club coincided with a tightening of the purse strings from Peter Lim and promises of support in the transfer window were not kept.
Valencia did not commit to a single permanent signing during his tenure, but allowed star names such as Ferran Torres, Francis Coquelin, Dani Parejo, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Leeds United’s Rodrigo to leave. As such, according to La Liga Lowdown’s Paco Polit, he felt betrayed.
Results were hard to come by with a squad that lacked star quality and he was eventually sacked with four games to go, following a 3-2 loss to Barcelona at the Mestalla, with Valencia in 14th.
2021 - 2022 - Al Sadd
Gracia was the man chosen to replace Barcelona bound Xavi at the helm of Qatari outfit Al Sadd in December 2021 and with the likes of Santi Cazorla and Andre Ayew at his disposal, he built on his compatriot’s good work in Al Rayyan. Gracia guided the club to the league title, with a draw being the only blemish on his record.
He couldn’t lead Al Sadd out of the group stage in the AFC Champions League, though. He left in June 2022 after seven months in the job.
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