David John Pleat (born 15 January 1945) is an English football player turned manager and sports commentator. He had two spells as manager of Luton Town football club, and four as manager of Tottenham Hotspur (three of which were as caretaker manager).
Pleat was appointed manager of Tottenham Hotspur in May 1986, traditionally one of the largest clubs in England. He brought Mitchell Thomas with him from previous club Luton. His earliest change at the club was to bring in Nico Claesen and Richard Gough, the latter of whom he paired with Gary Mabbutt in defence, moving Paul Allen into midfield. During his only full season as manager, Tottenham Hotspur reached third place in the First Division, reached the FA Cup final, and the semi-final of the Football League Cup in the 1986–87 season. 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 just one striker – Clive Allen, who scored 49 goals in all competitions. They had been in serious contention for all three major English trophies that season, although they ended the season without winning any of them.
Pleat's employment as manager of Tottenham came to an end in October 1987 when he was dismissed due to disclosures about his private life. Newspaper revelations that Pleat had been cautioned by police three times for kerb-crawling created publicity that forced him to leave Spurs. The board of Tottenham Hotspur was also keen to bring Terry Venables to the club as manager, because he had also become available.
He returned to Tottenham Hotspur as Director of Football in 1998. In September 2003, after the sacking of Glenn Hoddle, he took over as caretaker manager, a position that he held until the end of the season. This was the third of three occasions in which he had been caretaker manager for the club; he had previously fulfilled the role in 1998, before George Graham became manager, during which time the team had four wins, two draws, and one defeat.
[]
note = (c) = caretaker manager; (s) = secretary-manager; (i) = interim manager