Premiership: Pleat’s plea to Campbell

David Pleat has issued a plea to skipper Sol Campbell to give Tottenham ‘‘one more year’’.

The England centre-back is still in protracted talks with Spurs over a new contract after Barcelona admitted they fear he will turn down a massive offer from them - believed to be worth over £80,000-a-week over five years - and stay at White Hart Lane next season.

Spurs’ new manager Glenn Hoddle has already claimed he is optimistic of that happening and now Pleat is urging Campbell, 27, to ‘‘do a Hoddle’’ and delay any ambitions he might have to move from the club he joined as a teenager.

Pleat, Tottenham’s director of football, said: ‘‘I would hope Sol does the very same thing that Glenn Hoddle did for me when I was manager here in 1986-87.

‘‘Glenn had been given a verbal promise by the then chairman Irving Scholar that he could leave but I pleaded with him to give me an extra year because, as a young manager coming into the club I knew how difficult it would be for me to lose my star player.

‘‘I pleaded with Glenn to give me that year which he did. He was superb in a five-man midfield the next season which was a great one for the club and one which everybody still looks back on with such fondness.

‘‘So it can be done and I hope it will happen with Sol. He may feel, like Glenn did, that he needs to go abroad and open his eyes to new things but Glenn gained his mature experience abroad with Monaco after giving Tottenham an extra year and has come back a hero now anyway.’’

Under Bosman transfer laws, Spurs would be entitled to no fee if Campbell quits for another club after completing his contract.

But it is becoming increasingly more likely that the £18million-rated Londoner will follow the example of team-mate Darren Anderton who, at the end of last season, signed only a one-year new deal when his previous long-term agreement expired.

Anderton is now also free again to negotiate new terms at Tottenham or any other club and Campbell, who has always said he would like to stay at Spurs if the club show ambition, could agree a compromise deal for another 12 months.

But Pleat warned: ‘‘If Sol does stay another year we’ve got to make sure it is a good one for Spurs.

‘‘We’ve got to do well next season or else expect him to leave in a year’s time and I would perfectly understand that.

‘‘You also have to understand that the boy has, quite clearly, over a period of time, already turned down opportunities to receive more money and not just from abroad.

‘‘I know of several offers that could have taken him abroad for £16 or £17million easily.

‘‘But I know money was never the main thing on his mind. It was seeing out his contract and doing the thing properly.

‘‘His agent Sky Andrew has been very clever and diplomatic but there are suggestions coming back through the press that Sol may not be that happy to go abroad.’’

London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea have also been consistently linked with an interest in Campbell while Manchester United, who made a firm inquiry about him less than a year ago, could re-enter the race, especially with Tottenham apparently keen to re-sign striker Teddy Sheringham from Old Trafford.

Pleat admitted: ‘‘I think it is still delicately poised and I don’t want to jeopardise anything - but I would like Sol to do what Glenn did and go for it if we can.’’