Hutchings: Out! (DaveRogers/Allsport)

Bradford chairman Geoffrey Richmond believes Pleat's vast experience is the route to another unlikely escape act for his Premiership strugglers and has already begun the task of trying to lure him away from White Hart Lane.

But, while the former Sheffield Wednesday manager would welcome the chance to resume day-to-day coaching duties, he is loath to turn his back on a personal crusade to restore Tottenham's fading image as one of the game's leading attractions.

As Richmond prepared to follow up his initial inquiry with an official approach, Pleat was torn between taking up the challenge and remaining with a club who have always been close to his heart.

After making his name as a shrewd tactician at Luton and Spurs in the 1980s, Pleat misses the involvement of working with players on the training pitch.

Richmond, who appointed Stuart McCall as caretaker-manager, will use all his powers of persuasion to entice Pleat back to Yorkshire after carrying out his threat to dispense with Hutchings barely five months after handing him his first management job.