Dennis Wise: Difference between revisions

Dennis Wise

Personal information
Full name	Dennis Frank Wise
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder Manager
Team information
Current team	Leeds United

Dennis Frank Wise (born December 16, 1966 in Kensington) is an English football manager and former footballer, currently manager of Leeds United. Wise won 21 caps for England and scored 1 goal, on his debut against Turkey. He played for England in all three group games at Euro 2000.

Playing career

Wimbledon

Wise started his career with Southampton but fell out with manager Lawrie McMenemy and moved to Wimbledon at the age of 18.

He was a member of the Wimbledon "Crazy Gang" that famously defeated hot favourites Liverpool 1-0 in the 1988 FA Cup final and was named Wimbledon player of the year in the same season.

Chelsea

He signed for Chelsea in July 1990 for a then club record fee of £1.6 million.

Wise's Chelsea career spanned 11 years from 1990-2001. In his time at the club the combative midfielder made 445 appearances (only three Chelsea players have made more) and scored 76 goals, including a memorable Champions League equaliser in the San Siro against AC Milan in 1999. Wise was captain of the Chelsea teams that won the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the League Cup in 1998 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998. He was also twice voted club player of the year, in 1998 and 2000. With new manager Claudio Ranieri seeking to lower the average age of the Chelsea squad, he was sold to Leicester City in June 2001 for £1.6 million.

Always a controversial figure (Sir Alex Ferguson once said he could start a fight in an empty house) Wise's 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. The incident saw him stripped of the Chelsea captaincy by manager Glenn Hoddle; while in 1999 he was accused of "biting" Marcelino Elena of RCD Mallorca in a Cup Winners' Cup tie. In the 1998-99 season he missed a total of 15 games through suspension.

Leicester City

Wise's time at Leicester was less successful, and equally marred by controversy. He made just 17 league appearances and was sacked by the club in September 2002 after fracturing team-mate Callum Davidson's jaw with a punch on a pre-season tour of Finland. This incident and his subsequent successful claim of unfair dismissal saw Wise become one of the most hated men in the game by Leicester fans; Wise and Peter Taylor are still quoted as the key protagonists in the club entering administration, and the subseqent poor fortunes of the club. It is in fact Dennis Wise's fault that Leicester City are in the postion they are at the minute. If he hadnt of sued LCFC for unfair dismissal (unfair dismissal being breaking a team-mates jaw and being sacked for it), LCFC would be flying high in the Premiership, and how Wise was allowed to get away with this only the F.A know.

Millwall

Wise then signed for Millwall and became player-manager.

He led Millwall to the their first ever FA Cup final in 2004, where the (then) First Division (now called the Championship) side lost 3-0 to Premiership team Manchester United. Millwall were only the second team from outside the top flight to reach the final since 1982. Despite losing, Millwall still earned a place in the UEFA Cup for the first time, as United had already qualified for the Champions League. But they were knocked out in the first round by Hungarian champions Ferencvaros. He resigned at the end of the 2004-05 season, citing a disagreement with the new board.

Southampton

Wise joined Southampton on a free transfer during the summer of 2005 and made a total of twelve league appearances for them. With the resignation of Harry Redknapp, he was briefly joint temporary manager of the club with Dave Bassett. However, he left the club in December 2005 when the club decided to appoint George Burley as the new manager.

Coventry City

On January 19 2006, Wise signed a short-term pay-as-you-play deal with Coventry City, where he joined up once again with Micky Adams, who had been his manager whilst at Leicester City. He began his spell with Coventry by scoring a goal in each of his first three games with the club. The second goal, scored during a 2-1 victory against Hull City, was an overhead kick from sixteen yards.

Management career

Swindon Town

On 18 May 2006 Wise was appointed Swindon Town F.C. manager with ex-Chelsea team mate Gustavo Poyet as his assistant. Wise made an excellent start to the season by winning 6 out of 7 games and topping the League Two table with 18 points after a 2-0 away win against Chester on Friday 1st September. As a result of this start, Wise was awarded the League Two Manager of the Month award.

Wise's first defeat as Swindon boss came against Wrexham F.C. in the league two clash at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. His second defeat and first home defeat in charge of the Robins came against Peterborough United F.C. on 16 September 2006. This defeat left Swindon second in the table behind Wycombe Wanderers

Leeds United

On 20 September 2006 Wise was linked with the vacant Leeds United post following the sacking of Kevin Blackwell. On 23 October 2006 Swindon gave Wise and assistant Gus Poyet permission to speak to Leeds United. On 24 October 2006, Wise was confirmed as the new Leeds manager.

On 24 October, Wise watched from the stands as he saw Leeds crash to a 3-1 defeat in the Carling Cup against Championship side Southend United. Wise got a standing ovation from fans and in a press conference unveiling him to the media, he said that he believed that it did not matter that he formerly played for Chelsea. In the same press conference, Wise stated his aim was to bring Leeds back into the Premiership and replaced Leeds captain, Paul Butler and his vice captain Gary Kelly with the fiesty, hard tackling midfielder Kevin Nicholls, with Shaun Derry as his deputy.

His first match in charge saw Leeds beat Southend United 2-0 in the Championship. However, Leeds found themselves bottom of the Championship for the first time in their history despite a 2-1 victory over Hull; Southend beat Birmingham 3-1 on the same night and so went above Leeds by 1 goal difference (previously Leeds were above Southend on goals scored). When captain Kevin Nicholls asked to leave the club on loan to his old club and relegation rivals Luton, Wise immediately moved him out of the first team and gave the captaincy to Jonathan Douglas. Leeds' survival hopes were given a huge boost after beating promotion-chasing Preston 2-1 at home on 30 March 2007, followed by a win by the same scoreline against Plymouth. Both results meant the club was lifted from both the bottom spot and the relegation zone for the first time since November 2006. However a loss against Colchester United moved them back into the relegation zone however they only remain in the relegation zone due to goal difference. Wise has temporarily removed Douglas as captain (since suspension meant he missed the final games of the season and the 1st of the next season) and has given the captaincy to David Healy.

Honours

Wimbledon

• FA Cup winner - 1988

Chelsea

• FA Cup winner - 1997, 2000
• League Cup winner - 1998
• Cup Winners' Cup winner - 1998
• European Super Cup winner - 1998
• FA Charity Shield winner - 2000

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Millwall		October 15 2003	May 9 2005	89	36	29	24	40.44
Swindon Town		May 22 2006	October 24 2006	17	9	3	5	52.94
Leeds United		October 24 2006	Present	36	12	16	8	33.33

Updated to 14 April 2007

External links

• Dennis Wise at Soccerbase
• Dennis Wise management career statistics at Soccerbase
• Wise appointed Swindon manager
• Wise wins manager of the month award
• Wise linked with Leeds United job