Tottenham Hotspur have made some incredible signings over the years, but they’ve also missed a trick or two in the transfer market. Now, David Pleat has spoken candidly about four Premier League stars he recommended to the club, and explained how his advice was ignored.
Pleat had been heavily involved with Spurs over the last 40 years, as manager, and more recently as part of the scouting team. He announced he was stepping down earlier this summer.
Throughout his time at the club, Pleat helped identify the likes of Heung-min Son, Dele Alli, and Ben Davies. But in his latest interview with The Athletic, he revealed he wasn’t always listened to, and as a result, Spurs missed out on some incredible bargains. Here’s a look at what we could have won.
Jarrod Bowen
Apparently, Pleat had watched Jarrod Bowen during his time at Hull City, and told Spurs to snap up the winger for a fee thought to be around £8m.
Bowen would eventually join West Ham for around £22m in 2020 and is now the club captain, an England international, and one of the Premier League‘s best wingers.
Ivan Toney
Spurs were repeatedly linked with Ivan Toney over the last year, before eventually deciding to sign Dominic Solanke. Toney would ultimately end up at Saudi Pro-League side Al Ahli in a reported £40m deal.
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Turns out, the Lilywhites could have saved all that hassle over the summer by snapping up Toney years ago. Apparently, Pleat had recommended the striker to Tottenham for a similar price to the £8m Bowen would have cost.
Ollie Watkins
Perhaps the most impressive find for Pleat was his recommendation that Spurs sign Ollie Watkins, way back when he was playing in midfield for Exeter City. He eventually joined Brentford for around £6m in 2017, before making a big £28m move to Aston Villa in 2020.
Watkins was playing in League Two at the time Pleat spotted him, and uses this as an example that top clubs should not be so focused on scouting European leagues for the next big thing when the lower leagues of English football can produce such gems.
James Maddison
Admittedly, we got this one in the end, but James Maddison could have been a Spurs player a long, long time ago if Pleat had his way.
On the missed opportunity, Pleat said: “The boy (James) Maddison was so good it was like he had eyes in the back of his head… I went into Tottenham the following morning and said, ‘There’s a boy at Coventry we should sign tomorrow.’ It was an open goal. A tortoise couldn’t have gone slower. They didn’t chase it.”
Apparently, when Maddison eventually joined Spurs last summer, Pleat made a joke that he was “£40m too late.”
Maddison left Coventry for Norwich in a reported £2.5m deal in 2016. He later joined Leicester City for around £20m in 2018.
A word on Pleat’s methods
Pleat had some wise words to sum up his approach to scouting new talent through the football leagues, and suggested there is more to be learned from actually seeing players in the flesh rather than being driven by data.
He said: “The data people, they’re intelligent boys from university who’ve done wonderful dissertations. (But) they haven’t been in a dressing room and smelled the liniment. They don’t know that side of it.
“They’re more intelligent than most football people, and they’re very good at expressing themselves. They’re looking at lung-bursting runs, at intensity, at all sorts of things. But in the end, someone has to go with their eyes and ears.”