Just One More Goal : The autobiography of David Pleat

DavidPleat has lived a life at the heart of football. From his debut as an England Schoolboyinternational in 1960 to his time as a scout for Tottenham Hotspur up to 2024,his is a story that touches every facet of the professional game. At LutonTown, he is perhaps best remembered for dancing on the pitch after a win overManchester City secured the club’s top-flight survival in 1983. However, hisfifteen years at Kenilworth Road were about much more than that.

In1986, Pleat was given his shot at the big-time at Tottenham. But for afabricated tabloid scandal, his sole season as manager, which featured athird-placed finish, an FA Cup final and a League Cup semi-final, might havebeen the start of a transformation at White Hart Lane. After spells atLeicester City and Sheffield Wednesday, Pleat twice returned to Tottenham.

Here, he gives his frank assessment of his chairmen, Alan Sugar and DanielLevy, and an insider’s account of the rise and fall of managers from GlennHoddle to José Mourinho.

However,Just One More Goal is not just an account of one man’s lifelongobsession with football. It is the story of an evolving game, one that movedaway from instinct and spontaneity towards something colder and more technical.

David Pleat’s memoir is the perfect answer to the question of how modernfootball became what it is today.