Pleat happy to be back in the spotlight

DAVID PLEAT is a person of a specified level of skill. He must be because it says so in the dictionary. This particular definition is one of several of the "manager" and by way of explanation an example of common usage is helpfully added in brackets - "(a good manager)".

Scientifically speaking it may be difficult to prove that Pleat is a person of a specified level of skill but few within football would doubt that Pleat has earned his brackets.

Whenever Pleat's name crops up in conversation he is routinely referred to as a good manager and fans do not bestow this title lightly nor just upon those with silverware in the chairman's cabinet.

Pleat is in that mould of manager such as Dario Gradi at Crewe, Jo Kinnear at Wimbledon and even Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen, men who have achieved something big at somewhere small.

Pleat did that at Luton Town, where in a low budget environment he took Luton into the top flight and kept them there, and may be doing something significant now at Hillsborough. Not that Sheffield Wednesday is a small club, it is reasonably big especially when compared to Luton, but not many expected Chelsea to arrive at Hillsborough today to face a side with the record: played four, won four.

Yet that is the case and Pleat is once again Manager of the Month. It is recognition he has not received for a decade when his Tottenham side of Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle and 49 goal Clive Allen went top of the league after three games, eventually finished third and reached the FA Cup final.

The return of the spotlight is pleasing Pleat - "Belgian TV were here," he said yesterday. But Pleat knows more than anyone that praise offers no security in football. Despite that successful start at Spurs Pleat was out after one season following unproven but damaging - accusations of kerb crawling.

"I wouldn't mind if it were all true," he has said of the allegations. "Then I might understand what happened. But there was no proof, nothing factual whatever, yet mud sticks."

After that there was a possibility of a job in Greece with Olympiakos but Pleat instead found rehabilitation with Leicester City. However, in four seasons at Filbert Street he failed to repeat the promotion feat and five years ago, at the age of 46, Pleat was back where his playing days had ended and his management career had begun Kenilworth Road.

After White Hart Lane relative obscurity perhaps, but within three seasons Pleat had blended another swift side that surprised more than West Ham and Newcastle United on the way to the Cup semi final.

Pleat was back at Wembley, against today's opponents Chelsea and their manager by then, Hoddle. Luton lost 2-0 but afterwards Pleat was positively glowing in the renewed limelight. "It's nice to be back here," he said to the scores of reporters. "It's nice to have had the attention again."

It was a considerably smaller press gathering of five that greeted Pleat in Sheffield yesterday, a turnout that suggested the country has yet to take Wednesday's rise seriously. Pleat himself played down any talk of raised expectation. "If there is on the outside then I don't feel it because I'm cocooned in here but it's nice that we've started well."

They have been useful scalps, too, Aston Villa and Leicester at home, Leeds and Newcastle away - a return of 3 to 5 points would have been understandable. "I didn't say we were confident about the first four," he said quietly confident. "But for better or worse we've got a marriage."

The manager was pointing to the new harmony within the club after a "quite traumatic" end to last season when Wednesday went into the last game at Upton Park with relegation still a chance. The previous match had been a devastating 5-2 home defeat bye Everton - "I've never known a dressing room like it, they didn't seem concerned."

The summer needed and brought changes, mainly behind the scenes. Six back room staff left three to join Trevor Francis at Birmingham, others elsewhere and Pleat recruited people he knew. Silky Ricky Hill is now responsible for the youth team and Peter Shreeves, another former Spurs manager, is in as coach.

Of last season's atmosphere Pleat said: "If we can't get on with each other then it's hard on the pitch. We're closer now, there have been changes. If you look at good club managers such as Graham Taylor, or Brian Little, they take all their staff with them to a new club, some clubs won't let you do that."

Pleat has now and seems mightily relieved to be in full control off the pitch so that he and Shreeves can fully concentrate on matters on it. Personnel has also been changed here and Scott Oakes, Wayne Collins, Andy Booth, Ritchie Humphreys - "I knew he was a good player last season" - and Regi Blinker have all made an impact in a harder working Wednesday team.

First versus third this afternoon but Shreeves, released by Chelsea during the summer, knows all about the Londoners. "Obviously their tactical formation is one I know very well having led the foundations of that at the club. It will be a big test for us.

Pleat agreed but added: "We've coped with every game so far and in eight halves of football we've had four decent ones where we've battled, looked resilient. There is a danger that people should underestimate us because we have other qualities." The good manager will show those later.