A Word To The Wise

‘OUR cup floweth over. On the same day that Jeffrey Archer learnt that his appeal against his four-and-a-half year sentence for perjury had been thrown out, we learn that Dennis Wise’s football career may be at an end.

Dennis considers a new career as a key fob

The would-be Fagin gang member is now 35 and on that steady fall through the divisions to retirement. And Leicester are happy to give him a push, after he attacked team-mate Callum Dvidson on the club’s pre-season tour of Finland.

Davidson suffered a double fracture of a cheekbone in the bust-up, which took place after a late-night card game – and the club have decided they’ve had enough. Wise is on his way out of Filbert Street, either by free transfer or, more humiliatingly still, by having his contract cancelled.

For years, Wise has been getting the benefit of some very considerable doubt. He is referred to as ‘cheeky’ by the Press, when what they really mean to say is that he is a nasty piece of work.

Nothing illustrates Wise better than when he got Nicky Butt sent off at Chelsea a couple of seasons ago. As the two got up from the ground following a challenge/foul by Wise, the poisonous little midget could be clearly seen pinching Butt’s thigh. Of course, the referee didn’t see it, but he did see Butt’s retaliation – and the Manchester United midfielder gets his marching orders, while Wise congratulates himself on a job well done.

That is the kind of player Wise has always been – biting, pinching, kicking his way through the game. The kind of player every member of the opposition would love to lay out with a single blow, but knows that that is just what Wise wants.

But, of course, Chelsea fans loved Dennis. Not because he was a great footballer – he wasn’t – but because he was Chelsea made flesh. For all that Chelsea fans drool over the skills of Gianfranco Zola and, before him, Ruud Gullit, it is Dennis Wise who is the embodiment of the club.

Let us hope that this latest bust-up marks the end of a career that won’t be mourned outside a small area of West London. And what a fitting end it would be – thrown out of a club because his own team-mates don’t want to play with him. ‘

Posted: 23rd, July 2002 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink