Why, Oh Why, Oh Wise

‘THERE is a certain sense of inevitability about Dennis Wise joining Millwall. The New Den is surely the spiritual home of the pint-sized powderkeg, and the way things are going, it could yet turn out to be his spiritual burying place too.

”No-one likes me and I don’t care…”

”Old Den meets New Den today” says the Sun, although the negotiations have already been thrashed out in private. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer fella, could it? Lions boss Theo Paphitis, that is. Because, let’s face it, no one would describe manager Mike McGhee as popular would they?

And as for Dennis… The 35-year-old madman will now be getting ten grand a week after losing his rag and his lucrative contract with Leicester City.

Personal terms were ”quickly agreed”, reports the paper: as well as his basic wages, Dennis will get his own reinforced dressing room and as much raw meat as he can eat each day, plus a share of any club merchandise that uses the word ”nutter”.

Over at the Mirror another man with a short fuse is in the news. Graham Taylor has apparently banned the England women’s football team from staying at the same hotel as his Aston Villa squad.

The England players will now have to find new accommodation before their important World-Cup qualifier play-off against Iceland at St Andrews.

FA technical director Howard Wilkinson has appealed directly to Taylor, but the former England boss will not budge. The paper gives no explanation for Taylor’s intransigence, so readers will have to draw their own conclusions.

”It is disappointing,” said women’s boss Hope Powell, ”but we cannot allow ourselves to dwell on it and sometimes setbacks like these can refocus the team and hopefully that will be the case this time.”

In the Telegraph there is news from the altogether more agreeable world of real tennis.

We are delighted to hear that Chris Bray, Petworth’s ”head professional” (no, we don’t know either), beat Scotland’s Mike Gooding. This was not a punishment, but a world championship eliminator.

‘

Posted: 20th, September 2002 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink