One of the
interesting consequences of Jacques Santini's departure from Tottenham
has been the comments attributed to David Pleat about the situation at
Spurs and, in particular, the new management structure. An
uninformed observer might presume that Pleat had enjoyed great success
as a Premiership football director. As Spurs supporters know, that
is not quite the case.
Whilst he was Director of Football, Spurs fans became used to Pleat's
often bizarre public statements about the team, the manager and football
in general. The common thread running through all of these
comments was the fact that, despite being at Spurs for seven years, he
could in no way be held responsible for the team's mediocre performances
throughout that period. He continually used his column in the
Spurs programme to make obviously biased and self-serving comments about
the great job that English directors of football do and the number of
young players coming through the ranks at Tottenham who could be future
first-team players.
The reality is unfortunately somewhat different. No English club
with a director of football has been successful and, apart from Ledley
King, no homegrown player established himself in the first team at Spurs
during Pleat's tenure. He also made much of the work he did
scouring the lower leagues for players but, since 1999 when Davies,
Etherington, Doherty and Gardner signed, there has been no progress on
that front.
I have my doubts about the club's continental set-up, but it can surely
do no worse than the structure Pleat presided over. Frank Arnesen
has already shown that he has a greater network of contacts to unearth
reasonably priced relatively unknown players (e.g. Ziegler and Edman)
and the early signs are that he will not publicly undermine the
incumbent coach in the way Pleat acted over Hoddle.
David Pleat received a substantial payout for his removal at Spurs.
Even if he was entitled to that under his employment contract (and you
have to ask who agreed to such generous terms ?), it is regrettable that
the club did not get him to sign a watertight confidentiality agreement
as a condition of that payment banning him from making any public
statements about Tottenham. However, I would hope that Pleat bears
in mind his own track record at Spurs before criticising the club again.
Lenny Graham |
