David Pleat

David John Pleat (born 15 January 1945) is an English football player turned manager, and sports commentator.

Pleat made 185 Football League appearances for five clubs, scoring 26 goals.

He had two spells as manager of Luton Town, and four as manager of Tottenham Hotspur (three of which were as caretaker manager).

Pleat was born in Nottingham, England, and is of Jewish descent.

As a winger, Pleat represented England at schoolboy and youth international level.

He began his playing career with his hometown club Nottingham Forest.

In February 1962, he made his debut as the youngest ever player for the club at the time aged 17 years and 33 days against Cardiff City in Division 1.

His goal in a 2-1 win over the Bluebirds that day remains the youngest by a debutant for Nottingham Forest.

Injuries hampered his career and after spells at Luton Town (1964–67), Shrewsbury Town (1967–68) and Exeter City (1968–70) and Peterborough United (1970–71), he turned to coaching and management, having already qualified as a Full Badge FA Coach in 1968 when he was just 23.

His first coaching position was for Southern League team Nuneaton Borough in 1971, where he was appointed as player-manager on the recommendation of Peter Taylor, who worked alongside Brian Clough at Derby County and Nottingham Forest, and stayed there for two-and-a-half seasons.

From there he joined the coaching staff at Luton Town, initially as reserve team coach.

In January 1978 he was appointed manager of the club.

In 1983, Luton came close to being relegated from Division One, but reached safety after a late goal by Radomir Antić against Manchester City in the final game of the season.

Luton came close to reaching the FA Cup final in 1985 under Pleat.

They were beaten 2–1 by Everton in the semi-final in extra time at Villa Park.

Luton also lost in the quarter-final against Everton the following year.

During his eight years as manager of Luton Town the side were promoted from the Football League Second Division to the First Division, winning the second tier by a record number of points, and gained a reputation for playing attacking and attractive football, peaking at ninth place in the top flight in 1986.

Although the highest position in the club's history was achieved in 1986/87 after Pleat had left (but with a team largely made up of Pleat's players) when Luton finished 7th in the old division one.

A number of players in Pleat's team would receive international recognition, including defender Mal Donaghy (Northern Ireland), midfielder Ricky Hill and forwards Brian Stein, Paul Walsh and Mick Harford (all England).

In May 1986, Pleat was appointed manager of Tottenham Hotspur.

He brought Mitchell Thomas with him from Luton.

His earliest change at the club was to bring in Richard Gough whom he paired with Gary Mabbutt in defence, moving Paul Allen into midfield.

In the 1986-87 season, his only full season as manager, Tottenham Hotspur finished third in the First Division, and reached the FA Cup final and the semi-final of the Football League Cup.

Pleat received the 'Manager of the Month' awards in both January and February 1987.

Pleat's employment as manager of Tottenham came to an end in October 1987 when he resigned after unsubstantiated newspaper claims about his private life.

He was replaced by Terry Venables.

Pleat made a quick return to management just two months later with Leicester City, who had just been relegated from the First Division, initially taking them from the lower regions of the Second Division into the top six thanks to 34 points from 17 games.

Although Luton did not manage to reach a Cup final during Pleat's time in charge, the team that won the 1988 League Cup under Ray Harford, beating Arsenal 3–2 in the final, was largely Pleat's team of the early and mid-1980s with nine of the starting XI having been his signings.

He stayed at Filbert Street for more than three years but, hampered by financial constraints and the sale of key players such as Mike Newell, Gary McAllister and Russell Osman, was unable to help them achieve promotion and returned to Luton Town in June 1991 for a second spell as manager of the club.

They were relegated at the end of his first season back at Kenilworth Road, missing out on a place in the new FA Premier League, but the club's board kept faith in him.

Despite disappointing form in the new Division One, they did reach the FA Cup semi-final in 1994, losing 2–0 to Chelsea.

During his second spell at Luton, he developed a number of players from the youth team including Mark Pembridge, John Hartson, Paul Telfer and Ceri Hughes, who would all go on to leave for large transfer fees.

Glenn Moore, writing in The Independent in 1995, described the play during Pleat's stint as manager of Spurs as "some of the best attacking football of the last two decades".

During this season, he played with five in midfield including creative players such as Ossie Ardiles, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle and just one striker – Clive Allen, who scored 49 goals in all competitions.

The team narrowly lost 3-2 after extra time in the FA Cup Final against Coventry City in one of the most exciting matches that Wembley Stadium had witnessed.

In fact, Hartson's £2.5m transfer to Arsenal in January 1995 was a British record fee for a teenage player at the time.

Pleat left Luton after being offered the chance to manage Premier League side Sheffield Wednesday in the summer of 1995.

His first actions as manager for Wednesday, a position which he took over from Trevor Francis, were to add Mark Pembridge and Marc Degryse to the first team squad.

Pleat was tasked by the board with moving on a number of star players deemed to be past their peak during this period with the likes of John Sheridan, Chris Woods, Chris Waddle and Mark Bright all departing permanently or on loan throughout 1996, with striker David Hirst following soon after in 1997 as his injury problems continued.

His first season at Hillsborough was frustrating, as they finished 15th in the Premier League – their lowest finish in five seasons since promotion - with an aging squad of players.