Nuneaton Borough His first coaching position was for Southern League team
Nuneaton Borough 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.
Luton Town : 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. 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 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. 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. whom he paired with
Gary Mabbutt in defence, moving
Paul Allen into midfield.
Leicester City and return to Luton Town 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. 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. In fact, Hartson's £2.5m transfer to
Arsenal in January 1995 was a British record fee for a teenage player at the time.
Sheffield Wednesday 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. 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. 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. The start of Pleat's second season at the club saw them win their first four fixtures of the 1996–97 season, against
Aston Villa,
Leeds United,
Newcastle United and Leicester City, earning Pleat the
Premier League Manager of the Month for August 1996 as the Owls topped the Premier League. In October of that season, Pleat signed
Benito Carbone, who would become a cult hero at
Hillsborough. That summer saw Pleat add another Italian in
Paolo Di Canio, who would also go on to make a significant contribution in the Premier League, but after a poor start the following season, Pleat was sacked in November 1997.
Back to Tottenham In 1998, he returned to Tottenham Hotspur with
Alan Sugar appointing him as the club's first
Director of Football, 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; before returning to Spurs again in 2010 as a consultant scout. He departed Tottenham at the end of the
2023/24 season. Pleat has been instrumental in the signings of
Dele Alli,
Jan Vertonghen and
Ben Davies. He has also worked for the Premier League as an analyst for youth games and advising on academies. Pleat is the longest-serving member of the
League Managers Association Board and management committee, having joined in 1978, and, in 2012, he was inducted into the LMA Hall of Fame, which now includes the likes of
Sir Alex Ferguson,
Fabio Capello,
Pep Guardiola,
Jose Mourinho and
Jurgen Klopp. That same year, he was also awarded an M.A. (Hons) at Luton University for his services to football and the media. He has served on a number of FA panels concerning discipline, transfer tribunals and permits for overseas players. In 2021, Pleat was voted Luton Town's greatest manager by fans in a poll by Vital Football, securing 74% of all votes cast. ==Media career==