David Platt (footballer)
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David Platt
Personal information
Full name David Andrew Platt
Date of birth 10 June 1966 (1966-06-10) (age 43)
Place of birth Chadderton, Oldham, Lancashire, England
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
1982–1985 Manchester United
Senior career1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1985–1988
1988–1991
1991–1992
1992–1993
1993–1995
1995–1998
1999–2001 Crewe Alexandra
Aston Villa
AS Bari
Juventus
Sampdoria
Arsenal
Nottingham Forest 134 0(56)
121 0(50)
029 0(11)
016 00(3)
055 0(17)
088 0(13)
005 00(1)
National team
1988
1989–1996
1989–1996 England U-21s
England
England B 003 00(0)
062 0(27)
003 00(0)
Teams managed
1998–1999
1999–2001
2001–2004 Sampdoria
Nottingham Forest (player-manager)
England U-21s
1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)
David Andrew Platt (born 10 June 1966 in Chadderton, Oldham, Lancashire) is a former English footballer, who played in midfield.
Contents [hide]
1 Playing career
1.1 Early career
1.2 International breakthrough
1.3 Italian move
1.4 Last seasons with Arsenal
2 Coaching and media career
3 Career statistics
4 International goals
5 Honours
5.1 As a player
6 Managerial statistics
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Playing career
[edit] Early career
Platt signed for Manchester United as an apprentice on leaving school in 1982. He signed professional at the start of the 1984-85 season but was given a free transfer in January 1985 as a result of a staff-cutting exercise by manager Ron Atkinson.
Dario Gradi then signed Platt for Crewe Alexandra in the Fourth Division. He quickly established himself as a strong-running, free-scoring midfielder. In 1988, he signed for Aston Villa, and in his first season at Villa Park he helped the club achieve promotion to the First Division, one season after they had been relegated.
He was a frequent goalscorer for Villa, and in 1989-90 took them to the brink of the league title. Although they had to settle for runners-up spot behind Liverpool, Platt was voted PFA Player of the Year.
[edit] International breakthrough
Platt was given his first England cap by Bobby Robson in a friendly against Italy in 1989. When Bobby Robson named his 22 players for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Platt was on the bench for all of England's group games, but was sent on as an extra time substitute in the second round game against Belgium. He responded by scoring a memorable volley on the turn in the very last minute of extra time - his first goal for his country, and also the latest goal ever (excluding deciding penalties) in World Cup history - sending England into the quarter finals.
With captain Bryan Robson suffering an injury, Platt started the next game - a quarter-final tie against Cameroon - as his replacement, and scored the opening goal in a 3-2 victory. He also appeared in the semi-final against West Germany which went to a penalty shootout after finishing 1-1. Platt had a goal disallowed in extra time, and scored England's third penalty, but the next two were not converted and England went out of the tournament. Platt ended the competition on a personal high by scoring his third goal of the finals in a 2-1 defeat by Italy in the third place play-off.
The post-tournament hype for team-mate Paul Gascoigne meant that Platt's own outstanding World Cup was not tainted or affected by massive media reaction.[citation needed]He quietly settled back into his captain's role at Villa and retained his starting place in the England team, now managed by Graham Taylor, his former manager at Villa.
Platt became England's most consistent performer of the early 1990s,[citation needed]scoring goals with frequency from midfield and proving an inspirational leader. He was captain for much of this period, though Tony Adams also skippered the side.
In the Euro 92 tournament, England failed to win any of their group games and crashed out, with Platt scoring their only goal of the competition in a 2-1 defeat against Sweden. The squad then failed, despite Platt's continuing drive from midfield, to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and Taylor quit. His replacement, Terry Venables, kept Platt in his squads (indeed, Platt scored the first England goal in the Venables era) but by the time Euro 96 came round, Platt had to settle for a place on the bench, with Paul Ince and Gascoigne getting the[citation needed] midfield roles and Adams the captaincy.
Platt appeared as a substitute in most of the Euro 96 games, and started the quarter final against Spain as Ince was suspended. In the semi-final, he once again scored in a penalty shoot-out against Germany, but equally similarly, ended up on the losing side. Platt retired from international football soon afterwards, having been capped 62 times and scored 27 goals since his debut against Italy in 1989.
[edit] Italian move
Meanwhile, his abilities as a footballer had in 1991 taken him from Aston Villa to Italy, where he successfully turned out for Bari, Juventus and Sampdoria, costing many millions of pounds in transfer fees. Platt won the UEFA Cup with Juventus in 1993 and the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) with Sampdoria in 1994 under coach Sven-Göran Eriksson.
[edit] Last seasons with Arsenal
Arsenal then signed him in 1995 and he finally won English domestic honours in the game three years later as part of the squad which won both the FA Premier League and the FA Cup in 1997-1998 season. The match David Platt is most remembered for, in this season, was his 83rd minute header against Manchester United in November 1997, helping Arsenal to a 3-2 victory over their closest rivals and keeping Arsenal in the title race.
Platt suddenly announced his retirement from playing in the summer of 1998.
[edit] Coaching and media career
Within months of leaving Arsenal, Platt returned to Sampdoria as Head Coach, a controversial stint which ended prematurely, with other clubs protesting that Platt did not have the appropriate coaching qualifications for managing in Serie A. Platt resigned before Sampdoria were relegated to Serie B.
In July 1999 Platt was appointed manager of Nottingham Forest, who had just been relegated from the Premier League. He actually made a playing comeback in the 1999-2000 season, playing three Division One games, and scoring once against Crystal Palace at the start of the following season.[1]
He was manager at the City Ground for two seasons, but had little success despite spending several million pounds on players who did not perform well and plunging the club into large sums of debt. Platt's tenure at Forest was marred by disagreements with several experienced, long-serving players, leading to them being isolated from the first-team picture and subsequently released by the club. He is still hugely unpopular with many Forest fans who blame him for the club's decline on and off the field during the 2000s, which culminated in relegation to the league's third tier four years after his departure.
Platt was appointed manager of the England Under-21 side on 17 July 2001, which brought a little more success than his stint at Forest. He guided them to qualification for the U-21 European Championships in 2002. He left this role after failing to qualify for the 2004 tournament and was succeeded by Peter Taylor. Platt is now seen as a media pundit often for England U21 matches.
He writes a regular column for FourFourTwo magazine, commenting on tactics.
[edit] Career statistics
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1984-85 Crewe Alexandra Fourth Division 22 5
1985-86 43 9
1986-87 43 22
1987-88 26 19
1987-88 Aston Villa Second Division 11 5
1988-89 First Division 38 7
1989-90 37 19
1990-91 35 19
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
1991-92 Bari Serie A 29 11
1992-93 Juventus Serie A 16 3
1993-94 Sampdoria Serie A 29 9
1994-95 26 8
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1995-96 Arsenal Premier League 29 6 1 0 2 0 32 6
1996-97 28 4 1 0 3 1 2 0 34 5
1997-98 31 3 4 0 4 1 2 0 41 4
1999-00 Nottingham Forest First Division 3 0
2000-01 2 1
Total England 348 119
Italy 100 31
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