Pleat provides the answer

14 April 2012

Spurs weren't bad but David Pleat was much more fun to behold. Standing on the stairs of Coventry City's press room, he started talking like some enthusiastic, absent-minded uncle, musing: "If I hadn't been here, I'd have been on the settee probably watching on the telly all the football from 3 o'clock. I enjoy watching the football on the telly. . ."

Then, indulging in an increasingly comical performance to circumvent the possibility of having to give a straight answer to the only question that anyone really wanted to ask, the caretaker's caretaker seemed to start turning into Michael Fish.

"This is day three, actually," he burbled about life after Glenn Hoddle. "Monday was a bad day because it was a bit rainy and windy. Yesterday was beautiful and I thought it was going to be nice. Today's not bad. What happens on day four or five? Who knows?

"Who knows the future, we don't know. . . we don't know whose name will be thrown up and who might want to come. So we don't know tomorrow. We only know today and there's no future in the past . . ." Aaagh!

By then, though, even Pleat seemed to acknowledge in a selfdeprecating moment just how it all sounded and left us all chuckling-with his Cantona-style payoff-line: "And the sardines are following the trawler . . . "

This was his fourth coming as Spurs manager and even if he couldn't be less forthcoming about whether he wants to make this third fireman spell a permanent affair, his eccentric stalling after To t t e n h a m ' s restorative 3-0 Carling Cup win at Highfield Road somehow didn't seem to fool anyone. "Of course he wants the job," Chris Waddle had been insisting on Sky moments earlier, to general nods of agreement.

Why wouldn't Pleat want it? Each time he minds the shop, the director of football must remember his old observation that he was always more cut out to be a football man than an office man.

Genuinely enthusing about Tottenham's improving striking options, the new electric link-up between first-half goalscorers Freddie Kanoute and Robbie Keane and the breathtaking late solo run and strike by young Rohan Ricketts, he sounded as seduced as ever. The first time he acted as caretaker boss following Christian Gross's departure, Pleat regretted saying that he'd even do the car parking attendant's job at White Hart Lane if it meant staying at the club.

He reckons it only led to him being labelled an attendant rather than a top manager.

The next time he did the job after George Graham left - coincidentally, opening up with a 3-0 win over Coventry - he spoke freely because, presumably, he knew Hodd le was a certainty for the job.

Yet now he's being cautious because surely he senses it's different this time.

There are no obvious contenders crying out there and even if he wasn't exactly fashionable 15 years ago let alone now, each time he does his emergency routine he demonstrates, if nothing else, a very safe pair of hands.

His enthusiasm suggests he's never forgotten how much he loved being a manager.

Last night, the recipe for the refloat was simple and effective. Revert to the comfortable solidity of a flat back-four instead of 3-5-2, give players a straightforward system without the fear of wholesale tinkering and call for the players "to show commitment, to be true to themselves".

Throw in mediocre First Division opponents with a peculiarly lukewarm approach to this Cup scrap and you're back in business.

On a night when the occasional chant of "Glenn Hoddle's blueand-white army" couldn't disguise the lack of lamenting for an old hero's departure, Pleat wasn't about to put the boot in and paid warm tribute to the former boss.

Yet when asked about whether he felt the players had looked more comfortable playing his 4-4-2 system, of course he had to admit "I think so".

Spurs still do not convince you that they are ready to embark on the sort of run that Pleat says they desperately need. The discomfort of their defence even when faced just with a couple of willing journeymen like Dele Adebola and Andy Morrell certainly did not bode well.

Yet Pleat is confident about the future, whether waxing about last night's promising outing for Belgian youth internat ional Jonathan Blondel or the brilliance of Helder Postiga in training - something incredulous Spurs fans will just have to take his word for.

Naturally, he'd really like to be directing this spectacular future as Tottenham coach?

"Don't ask," Pleat keeps saying. We don't need to, David.

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