David Pleat has joined the Celtic scouting staff.
During the eighties the former Luton and Spurs manager was regarded as one of the most progressive minds in football with regular media appearances en hancing his profile.
Pleat had three spells as Spurs Caretaker manager towards the end of the last decade with a brief spell as Assistant Manager of Portsmouth in 2005 his last hands on job in the game.
A scouting job at Spurs recently came to an end with Celtic’s Head of Football Operations Paul Tisdale deciding to use Pleat’s experience to find fresh talent.
The Daily Mail reports:
Celtic have drafted former Tottenham manager David Pleat into their English scouting set up.
A former coach, director of football and consultant scout at Spurs, the North London club announced that the 80-year-old would be stepping back from his duties at the end of last season.
Credited with the signings of Dele Alli, Jan Vertonghen and Ben Davies, Pleat describes himself as a ‘football obsessive’.
And Celtic head of recruitment Paul Tisdale has offered the former Luton Town boss a 12-month deal to flag up any prospective signings, primarily south of the border.
English football is extensively scouted as clubs try to find the elusive homegrown talents needed to play in UEFA competitions.
It also has a very high number of players that fall out of the Academy system with Celtic hoping that Pleat can spot a Matt O’Riley type figure needing to relaunch their career.
It is an interesting development but with two weeks left in the January transfer window Celtic fans are looking to see fresh signings arrive ready to instantly boost Brendan Rodgers’ squad.
Don’t send him on any scouting missions to St Pauli, if you know what I mean…. mind you he’s 80 now so you’d think all that caper was behind him…..