Second Division. He was a frequent goalscorer for Villa, helping re-establish them in the First Division at the end of the 1980s, 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 Players' Player of the Year. The next season, 1990–91, he continued where he left off. In a game against Arsenal he famously went in goal when Nigel Spink was injured in a 5–0 defeat to Arsenal. Platt's success with Villa was evident in his goal-scoring record. In more than three years at Villa Park, he played 121 League games, scoring 50 goals. In the FA Cup he scored two goals in four games, while in the League Cup he scored 10 goals in 14 games. However, his final season at Villa saw the club finish a disappointing 17th in the league, and he was already being linked with a move to Italy. Bari On 21 July 1991, Platt moved to Italy to play in Serie A. He signed for A.S. Bari for £5.5 million where he was given the captain’s armband and the number 10 shirt. He played 29 games in his first season, scoring 11 goals. In the Italian league, where goals were difficult to come by owing to the more defensive tactics adopted by most clubs, particularly for a midfielder, this was considered an impressive achievement. Unfortunately, the 1991–92 Serie A season ended in relegation for Platt and Bari. During his time at Bari, Platt received a phone call from Roberto Mancini in January 1992, who pressed him to come to Sampdoria. Almost from the moment Platt – the 1990 PFA Players' Player of the Year at Aston Villa and one of Bobby Robson's shining lights at the World Cup finals of the same year – left England in a transfer-record move to Serie A club Bari, Mancini saw the asset he would be at Sampdoria, where the Italian was captain. Platt's first telephone call from Mancini came as a surprise in January 1992. "We'd played Sampdoria a few times and I'd faced Robbie," Platt recalls. "But I didn't know him and he'd tracked my number from somewhere. He said: 'I know you've got a good relationship with your president, I'm sure you could push through a move to us.'" In the end, Platt chose Juventus. Juventus In June 1992,