Dennis Wise

For the fictional character from The Wire, see Dennis "Cutty" Wise.

Dennis Wise
Wise in 2018
Personal information
Full name Dennis Frank Wise[1]
Date of birth (1966-12-16) 16 December 1966 (age 57)[1]
Place of birth Kensington, England
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[1]
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
1983–1985 Southampton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1990 Wimbledon 135 (27)
1985 → Grebbestads IF (loan) 10 (5)
1990–2001 Chelsea 332 (53)
2001–2002 Leicester City 17 (1)
2002–2005 Millwall 85 (7)
2005–2006 Southampton 11 (1)
2006 Coventry City 13 (6)
2006 Swindon Town 0 (0)
Total 593 (95)
International career
1988 England U21 1 (0)
1989–1990 England B 3 (1)
1991–2000 England 21 (1)
Managerial career
2003–2005 Millwall
2005 Southampton (caretaker)
2006 Swindon Town
2006–2008 Leeds United
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dennis Frank Wise (born 16 December 1966) is an English former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder. He is best known for having spent the majority of his career at Chelsea, from 1990 to 2001.

Beginning his career at Wimbledon, Wise came to prominence as a member of the "Crazy Gang", and in 1988, was part of the team that won the FA Cup in an upset victory over Liverpool. In 1990, he joined Chelsea, becoming captain three years later under the stewardship of Glenn Hoddle. During his time at Stamford Bridge, Wise won two FA Cups, a League Cup and a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and is the club's second most successful captain,[2] behind John Terry. Wise was a popular figure amongst the Chelsea support, and was named the club's Player of the Year on two occasions. In June 2001, he was sold to Leicester City.

Internationally, Wise was in and out of the squad for the England national football team, with the majority of his appearances coming in 2000, when Kevin Keegan was manager. He was named in the UEFA Euro 2000 squad, playing in all three of England's group games. His only goal for the national side was on his debut on 1 May 1991, against Turkey.[3]

In the latter years of his playing career, Wise gradually became involved in the managerial aspects of the game, starting at Millwall, where he took on the role of player-manager, taking them to the FA Cup Final and European football for the first time ever. He was briefly caretaker manager at Southampton, following the departure of Harry Redknapp, before he took over the reins at Swindon Town on a permanent basis. In October 2006, he was appointed manager of the then-Championship side Leeds United, who found themselves in the relegation zone. Although they were ultimately relegated, Wise reshaped his side in the close season and Leeds made an excellent start to their first season in the third tier of English football.

In a surprise career move, despite their strong position and likelihood of promotion, Wise left Leeds in January 2008 to join the newly reshaped management team at Newcastle United in an executive role, tasked with travelling around Europe and further afield identifying young players and developing the academy.[4] Wise left Newcastle on 1 April 2009.[5] Following the situation that led to his departure, Wise admitted that "it has all had a damaging effect on my career".[6] He has since worked as a pundit for Sky Sports. In 2017, Wise appeared on the seventeenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

  1. ^ a b c Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2003). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003–2004. Queen Anne Press. p. 459. ISBN 1-85291-651-6.
  2. ^ "Wise saddened by Bates exit". BBC Sport. 5 March 2004. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
  3. ^ "Turkey 0 – England 1; 1 May 1991 (Match summary)". www.englandstats.com. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference themag224 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Newcastle United - News - Features - Features - NUFC Statement - Dennis Wise". www.nufc.co.uk.p.preprod.performgroup.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  6. ^ "Wise defends Toon role". Sky Sports. 5 October 2009.