David Pleat

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David Pleat was (born January 15, 1945 in Nottingham) is an English football manager and former player, who now provides Champions League commentary for ITV. He is now a Football Consultant for Nottingham Forest. He has managed Luton Town F.C., Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and Sheffield Wednesday F.C. He used to be a consultant at Portsmouth F.C., but his appointment was on a short-term basis.

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[edit] Luton Town (1978-1986): First job well done

David Pleat moved into management in 1978 at the age of 33, taking charge of Second Division strugglers Luton Town. In his fourth season as manager, 1981-82, Luton won promotion to the First Division and remained there for the next ten years. An impressive Luton side, including 1984 PFA Young Player of the Year Paul Walsh, were soon a match for most other English teams. In 1988, two years following Pleat's departure, they beat Arsenal to win the League Cup under the management of Ray Harford. This is the club's only major honour to date. Although the success was achieved under Ray Harford, David Pleat contributed to the success because most of the cup-winning players had been signed by Pleat.

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur (1986-1987): Brief but eventful

David Pleat's second managerial job was with Tottenham Hotspur, commencing in the summer of 1986 when he left Luton Town after eight years in charge and moved to White Hart Lane to replace Peter Shreeves.

1986-87 was a good season for Tottenham. They finished third in the First Division and reached the FA Cup final, where they faced Coventry City. Tottenham had won all seven of their previous finals, and Coventry had never appeared in a final before, so they were hot favourites to win. But a 3-2 defeat meant that Tottenham ended the season trophyless. Pleat left the following October.

[edit] Leicester City (1988-1991): Disappointment

David Pleat's third managerial job, at Leicester City, was far from successful. Amongst the promotion favourites when he became manager in the summer of 1988, by the time he was sacked in January 1991 they were fighting against relegation from the Second Division for the first time in their history. This was largely due to Pleat's inability to communicate his over-elaborate ideas and tactics to the players combined with an unfortunate penchant for playing people out of position while simultaneously alienating large sections of the crowd. Eventually the battle against relegation was narrowly won by his successor Gordon Lee.

[edit] Luton Town (1991-1995): Few highs and a terrible low

In May 1991, David Pleat was named as Luton Town manager for the second time. Their fortunes had slipped dramatically in the previous three seasons, when relegation had been avoided on the very last day of each season. Pleat seemed like the man to secure Luton a place clear of relegation, but instead they were relegated on the last day of the season after ten years in the First Division, missed out on a place in the new FA Premier League and have not been in the top division since. They did reach the FA Cup semi finals in 1994, but failed to make an impact in Division One and Pleat left the club in June 1995 to take charge of Sheffield Wednesday.

[edit] Sheffield Wednesday (1995-97): Mixed fortunes

David Pleat's first season as Sheffield Wednesday manager was frustrating. He had hoped to mount a challenge for a UEFA Cup place, but instead they were involved in a relegation battle right up to the very last day of the season and finished 15th in the Premiership. Not even the addition of expensive foreign players like Regi Blinker, Orlando Trustfull and Dejan Stefanovic could halt Wednesday's decline.

1996-97 was better. Wednesday were top of the Premiership table after winning their first four fixtures of the 1996-97 season, and Pleat was named Premiership Manager of the Month for August 1996. But they were unable to mount a serious title challenge and finished seventh in the final table, not even enough for a UEFA Cup place. Pleat was sacked in October 1997 with Wednesday battling relegation once again.

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur (1998-2004): Back at White Hart Lane

David Pleat returned to Tottenham Hotspur as Director of Football in 1998, and was put in charge of first-team affairs for most of the 2003-04 season following Glenn Hoddle's dismissal. Tottenham secured a 14th place finish, but there was never any question of Pleat getting his old job back on a permanent basis and he was ousted by new sporting director Frank Arnesen in May 2004.

[edit] Portsmouth (2005): Helping Perrin

Towards the end of the 2004/05 season David Pleat returned to English football, working for Portsmouth in a temporary consultancy role under new manager Alain Perrin. This role ended at the close of the season.

[edit] Nottingham Forest (2006): Helping Calderwood

On August 11, 2006, Pleat was installed as a consultant for Nottingham Forest, where he will work with current Forest manager Colin Calderwood.[1]

[edit] Commentary career

Pleat has since begun a career in commentary, mostly for midweek Champions League matches on ITV. Many people have said Pleat is "one of the worst commentators around". This opinion of many is mainly due to his monotone voice, poor humour and inept pronunciations of foreign names, including Roman Abramovich, Thierry Henry, Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez, and Gabriel Heinze. Fans also dislike the way he says what players are saying, and what a player should have done, despite his poor playing and managing career.

Preceded by
Harry Haslam		 Luton Town manager
1978-1986		 Succeeded by
John Moore
Preceded by
Peter Shreeves		 Tottenham Hotspur manager
1986-1987		 Succeeded by
Terry Venables
Preceded by
Jim Ryan		 Luton Town manager
1991-1995		 Succeeded by
Terry Westley
Preceded by
Glenn Hoddle		 Tottenham Hotspur manager
2003-2004		 Succeeded by
Jacques Santini
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