Wise: Dennis Frank (Dennis)

2006-2008 (Manager Details) (Manager Details)

Born 16th December 1966 in Kensington, London, Dennis Wise stated his football career with First Division Southampton, but in a sign of things to come, he left the Saints after a disagreement with Manager Lawrie McMenemy. As a Youth player he did not play any senior games for Southampton and moved on to Second Division Wimbledon, who were Managed by Dave Bassett at the time, where he signed professional forms on 28th March 1985. He had a brief loan spell with Grebbestads IF (Sweden) and made one substitute appearance in the Wimbledon first team in the 1984/85 season. He made one start and three more appearances from the bench as Wimbledon gained promotion to the First Division in 1985/86. He then became a regular in the top flight and helped Wimbledon come a commendable sixth in the League and win the FA Cup in 1987/88. It was he that supplied the cross from a free kick from which Lawrie Sanchez scored the winning goal. Wise was an extremely feisty and combative midfielder and was no stranger to the FA disciplinary judiciary. He made ninety-seven League starts and eight substitute appearances for Wimbledon and scored twenty-seven goals before signing for Chelsea on 3rd July 1990 for £1.6 million. His style fitted into the Chelsea approach and he soon was appointed Captain. He had gained an Under-Twenty-one cap and three 'B' Caps before going on to claim Twenty-one full caps while at Chelsea. He scored his only England goal when it was deflected off his backside as he came on as substitute against Turkey in his debut on 1st May 1991.He became Chelsea's most successful Captain and while at Chelsea they were FA Cup winners'in 1996/97 and 1999/2000 and losing finalists in 1993/94. They lifted the League Cup in 1997/98 and the UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup in the same season. They also took out the Charity Shield in 2000/01 and were losers in 1997/98. During his time at Stamford Bridge he scored fifty three goals in three hundred and twenty-two appearances, including ten from the bench. In the Cups he scored seven goals in thirty-eight appearance in the FA Cup and six goals in the League Cup in thirty appearances. He also scored eight goals in forty-four starts and one game off the bench in European and other games. In total seventy-four goals in four hundred and forty five appearances, which made him the fourth on the list of most games for Chelsea. Wise always remained a controversial figure, leading Sir Alex Ferguson to say that he could "start a fight in an empty house". His time at Chelsea was tarnished by disciplinary problems and unsavoury off-the-field incidents. In 1995 he was convicted of assaulting a London taxi-driver, and given a three-month prison sentence, which was later overturned on appeal. Nonetheless, the incident still saw him stripped of the Chelsea captaincy by manager Glenn Hoddle. In April 1999, he was accused of "biting" Marcelino Elena of RCD Mallorca in a Cup Winners' Cup tie, and in the 1998–99 season he missed a total of 15 games through suspension. With the advent of Claudio Ranieri Chelsea looked to lower the age of its team and Wise was sold to Leicester City for £1.6 million on 23rd June 2001. His stay at Leicester was hardly a success. He scored once in fifteen starts and two more from the bench and Leicester were relegated from the EPL He reach the bottom assaulting another Leicester player Callum Davidson on a pre-season tour, which resulted in the defender sustaining a broken jaw and nose and Wise was sent home and suspended by the club in July 2002. He joined Millwall on 24th September 2002 on a free transfer and became Player-Manager two months later. He kept Millwall in a healthy position and had a ninth and tenth finish in the First Division in his first two seasons there, but took them all the way to the FA Cup Final in the second season only to be beaten by Manchester United by 3-0. As the victors had already qualified for the ECL, it meant that Millwall gained entry into the UEFA Cup but they were knocked out in the First Round by Hungarian champions Ferencvaros. Wise had played eighty five League games, of which fifteen were from the bench and scored seven goal while at the Den. Not unusually, Wise left athe end of his third season after a 'difference of opinion' with the new board. He returned to Southampton where Harry Redknapp took him on as a player on a free transfer on a one year contract and he briefly became joint Caretaker-Manager with Dave Bassett when Redknapp left on 2nd December 2006. He had harboured ideas of becoming Manager but Saints' Chairman Rupert Lowe was not happy with his conduct and on 23rd December 2006 appointed George Burley instead, something that Wise did not take with good grace and left on 26th December 2006, havinf scored once in Eight League starts and three games from the bench. On 19th January 2007 he joined his Manager from his Leicester City days, Micky Adams, at Coventry City on a free transfer on a short-term 'pay-as-you-go' contract. At the end of the season he was out of contract and was released on 9th May 2007, after scoring six goals in eleven League starts and two more from the bench. He was appointed Manager of Swindon Town on 22nd May 2006 on a three-year contract, with his former Chelsea teammate Gus Poyet as his Assistant Manager. He soon had success and won 'Manager of the Month' awards and had taken them to second place in League Two before Leeds paid Swindon compensation to bring Wise and Poyet to Elland Road on 24th October 2006. Leeds were in twenty-third spot on the CCCL ladder and deep in relegation trouble and the ex-Chelsea duo could do little to save them from relegation in League One as the club stumbled from one disater to another. Wise immediately targetted the old-brigade axing Paul Butler, Gary Kelly and Sean Gregan and encouraging them to go elsewhere while appointing Kevin Nicholls and Shaun Derry as the men to lead Leeds out of their problems. Injuries dictated that they would play little part in that plan but soon both players were disowned by Wise and they too were encouraged to go elsewhere. With relegation already confirmed Chairman Ken Bates, the godfather of one of Wise's children, put the club into administration on 4th May 2007 and with one League fixtureremaining they were given a ten point deduction by the League and finished bottom. They were relegated to the Third tier of the Football League for the first time in the club's history. The Wise/Poyet team was retained by the club which spent the majority of the close season in financial crisis and not knowing whether they would be able to function as a football club. This precluded Leeds from buying and selling players or resigning out of contract players and it was not until 4th August 2007 that Leeds were granted their 'golden share' and function fully as a Football club once more. It came at a price as they suffered a fifteen point deduction for irregularities and were at an instant disadvantage in their quest to return to the CCCL and higher aspirations. Wise was able to use the imposition as a motivational tool and the team won the first seven games, with him winning 'Manager of the Month' for the first two months of the new season. His Assistant Gus Poyet was lured away by Tottenham Hotspur to become Assistant to their new Manager Juande Ramos on 29th October 2007 and he instantly brought in his former mentor at Wimbledon, Dave Bassett, to replace him. United lost their first League game of the season in the new combination's first game in charge on 3rd November and though United actually went top of the League for a brief time at Christmas they were not the same force that they had been and fell out of the FA Cup to League Three side Hereford United and lost several games to relegation-threatened teams and for a time lost touch with the League leaders. They started the New Year in Third position and Wise splashed in the transfer market bringing in Neil Kilkenny from Oldham Athletic, Darren Kenton on Loan from Leicester to cover for Rui Marques, who went on International duty, Peter Sweeney from Stoke City and Bradley Johnson from Northampton Town. He also gave the team a shake-up and had moves for Alan Sheehan from Leicester City, Lubomir Michalik from Bolton and Anthony Elding from Stockport County when Wise surprisingly left the club for Newcastle on 28th January 2008 after only drawing at Luton the previous weekend and United were in fifth position, but without the fifteen point imposition would have been top. It was claimed that wise had lost touch and interest after Poyet had left and that he needed a change of direction. His job designation at Newcastle was Executive Director (Football), an advisor to the board on footballing matters, reporting directly to the club chairman Chris Mort.The position seemed to be in conflict with the appointment of Kevin Keegan and it was thought that it was one of the reasons for Keegan's departure from Newcastle not long afterwards, amid fans accusations of a 'Cockney mafia'. "It's my opinion that a Manager must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon any Manager any player that he does not want." Seemed to be a direct accusation of Wise's position at the behest of club owner Mike Ashley, being an impediment to his managership. Ashley overlooked Wise in appointing Joe Kinnear as Keegan's successor and has the club up for sale, while Wise continues to receive his salary in his untenable position. Howver his job entails travelling around Europe and further afield identifying young players and developing the academy, and is so unspecific that it will take a change of ownership to move him, no doubt with a hefty compensation. Dennis Wise, the chap who Alex Ferguson said “could start a fight in an empty house”, is a thoroughly upstanding citizen who is adored by fans across the nation for his refusal to acquiesce to demands of the the money men. That is, according to the jacket of his 1999 autobiography: In an age when football is dominated by glamorous foreign players chasing multi-million-pound contracts from club to club, Dennis Wise represents the traditions of team loyalty, dogged determination and fighting spirit. It is perhaps this, as well as his charmingly irascible nature, that makes Dennis (Wisey to his teammates and fans) such an enduringly popular player. Leicester, Leeds and Newcastle fans would probably disagree, citing self-praise is no recommendation.