David Pleat

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David Pleat
Personal information
Full name	David Pleat
Date of birth	January 15, 1945 (1945-01-15) (age 63)
Place of birth	Nottingham, England
Height	5'8
Playing position	Winger
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1962–1964 1964–1967 1967–1968 1968–1970 1970–1971	Nottingham Forest Luton Town Shrewsbury Town Exeter City Peterborough United	006 0(1) 070 0(9) 012 0(1) 068 (14) 028 0(2)
Teams managed
1978–1986 1986–1987 1987–1991 1991–1995 1995–1997 1998 2001 2003–2004	Luton Town Tottenham Hotspur Leicester City Luton Town Sheffield Wednesday Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker) Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker) Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

David Pleat (born January 15, 1945 in Nottingham) was an English football manager and former player, who now provides Champions League commentary for ITV and occasional commentary for BBC Radio Five Live. He has managed Luton Town, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Luton Town (1978–1986) 2.2 Tottenham Hotspur (1986–1987) 2.3 Leicester City (1988–1991) 2.4 Luton Town (1991–1995) 2.5 Sheffield Wednesday (1995–97) 2.6 Tottenham Hotspur (1998–2004) 2.7 Consultancy 3 Media career 4 Managerial stats 5 References 6 External links

Playing career

Pleat began his career at home town club Nottingham Forest in 1962 when, at the time of his debut, he was Forest's youngest ever player. He later had spells with Luton Town, Shrewsbury Town, Exeter City, Peterborough United and Nuneaton Borough. His playing career ended at the age of 28 due to back problems.

Managerial career

Luton Town (1978–1986)

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.

Tottenham Hotspur (1986–1987)

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 after rumours began to circulate that he had been caught kerb-crawling. Indeed, Pleat has a criminal conviction for the offence and has been caught committing it on three separate occasions.[1][2]

Leicester City (1988–1991)

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.

Luton Town (1991–1995)

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.

Sheffield Wednesday (1995–97)

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.

Tottenham Hotspur (1998–2004)

David Pleat returned to Tottenham Hotspur as Director of Football in 1998, and had several periods as caretaker manager, the last of which was in the 2003–04 season. 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 the then new sporting director Frank Arnesen in May 2004.^[1]

Consultancy

Towards the end of the 2004–05 season Pleat returned to football, working for Portsmouth in a temporary consultancy role under then manager Alain Perrin.^[2] This role ended at the close of the season. In August 2006, Pleat begun a similar role at Nottingham Forest, alongside Forest manager Colin Calderwood.^[3] The most recent movement in Pleat's long and illustrious career takes him to Spain as football advisor at UD Marbella, joining fellow Englishman Carl Cort at the spanish lower league outfit. ^[4]

Media career

Pleat has since begun a career in commentary. He began his career with ITV, before joining the BBC where he was a co-commentator for much of the 1990s, before returning to ITV, where he gained a more prominent role following the sacking of Ron Atkinson. He co-commentates mostly for midweek Champions League matches on ITV. He also worked at the 2006 World Cup. Pleat also writes a column in The Guardian newspaper. David Pleat is currently commentating in ITV's coverage for Euro 2008.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Luton Town		January 25, 1978	May 16, 1986	375	146	125	104	38.93
Tottenham Hotspur		May 16, 1986	October 23, 1987	71	39	21	11	54.92
Leicester City		December 24, 1987	January 29, 1991	153	49	60	44	32.02
Luton Town		June 6, 1991	June 14, 1995	202	55	81	66	27.22
Sheffield Wednesday		June 14, 1995	November 3, 1997	102	32	40	30	31.37
Tottenham Hotspur		September 7, 1998	October 1, 1998	6	3	1	2	50.00
Tottenham Hotspur		March 16, 2001	April 2, 2001	2	1	1	0	50.00
Tottenham Hotspur		September 21, 2003	June 3, 2004	39	16	16	7	41.02

References

External links

• David Pleat management career stats at Soccerbase
• David Pleat profile from the League Managers Association

v • d • e Luton Town F.C. – Managers Green (1901–28) • Thomson (1925) • McCartney (1927–29) • Kay (1929–31) • Wightman (1931–35) • Liddell (1936–38) • McBain (1938–39) • Martin (1939–47) • Duncan (1947–58) • Owen (1959–60) • Bartram (1960–62) • Harvey (1962–64) • Martin (1965–66) • Brown (1966–68) • Stock (1968–72) • Haslam (1972–78) • Pleat (1978–86) • Moore (1986–1987) • R. Harford (1987–1990) • Mancini (1990) • Ryan (1990–91) • Pleat (1991–95) • Westley (1995) • Lawrence (1995–2000) • Hill (2000) • Fuccillo (2000–01) • Kinnear (2001–03) • Newell (2003–07) • Stein (2007) • Blackwell (2007–08) • M. Harford (2008–Present)

v • d • e Tottenham Hotspur F.C. – Managers Brettell (1898–1899) • Cameron (1899–1907) • Kirkham (1907–1908) • Turner (1908–1912s) • McWilliam (1913–1927) • Minter (1927–1930) • Smith (1930–1935) • Hardinge (1935c) • Tresadern (1935–1938) • McWilliam (1938–1942) • Turner (1942–1946) • Hulme (1946–1949) • Rowe (1949–1955) • Anderson (1955–1958) • Nicholson (1958–1974) • Neill (1974–1976) • Burkinshaw (1976–1984) • Shreeves (1984–1986) • Pleat (1986–1987) • Hartley & Livermore (1987c) • Venables (1987–1991) • Shreeves (1991–1992) • Livermore & Clemence (1992–1993) • Ardiles (1993–1994) • Perryman (1994c) • Francis (1994–1997) • Hughton (1997c) • Gross (1997–1998) • Pleat (1998c) • Graham (1998–2001) • Pleat (2001c) • Hoddle (2001–2003) • Pleat (2003c) • Santini (2004) • Jol (2004–2007) • Allen (2007c) • Ramos (2007–) (c) caretaker (s) secretary-manager

v • d • e Leicester City F.C. – Managers Clark (1896–97) • Johnson (1898–07) • Blessington (1907–09) • Aitken (1909–11) • Bartlett (1912–14) • Hodge (1919–26) • Orr (1926–32) • Hodge (1932–34) • Lochhead (1934–36) • Womack (1936–39) • Bromilow (1939–45) • Mather (1945–46) • Duncan (1946–49) • Bullock (1949–55) • Halliday (1955–58) • Gillies (1959–68) • O'Farrell (1968–71) • Bloomfield (1971–77) • McLintock (1977–78) • Wallace (1978–82) • Milne (1982–86) • Hamilton (1986–87) • Pleat (1987–91) • Little (1991–94) • McGhee (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995–00) • Taylor (2000–01) • Bassett (2001–02) • Adams (2002–04) • Levein (2004–06) • Kelly (2006–07) • Allen (2007) • Megson (2007) • Holloway (2007–08)

v • d • e Sheffield Wednesday F.C. – Managers Dickinson (1891–1920) • B. Brown (1920–1933) • Walker (1933–1937) • McMullan (1937–1942) • Taylor (1942–1958) • Catterick (1958–1961) • Buckingham (1961–1964) • A. Brown (1964–1968) • Marshall (1968–1969) • Williams (1969–1971) • Dooley (1971–1973) • Burtenshaw (1974–1975) • Ashurst (1975–1977) • Charlton (1977–1983) • Setters (1983c) • Wilkinson (1983–1988) • Eustace (1988–1989) • Atkinson (1989–1991) • Francis (1991–1995) • Pleat (1995–1997) • Shreeves (1997c) • Atkinson (1997–1998) • Wilson (1998–2000) • Shreeves (2000c) • Jewell (2000–2001) • Shreeves (2001) • Yorath (2001–2002) • Green (2002c) • Turner (2002–2004) • Smith (2004c) • Sturrock (2004–2006) • McAuley (2006c) • Laws (2006–) (c) caretaker

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