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Footballers, particularly those like me who are lucky enough to play for one of the more glamorous clubs, have a great life. You feel that nothing can touch you. You feel somehow totally protected. Then something happens to let you know that you are just as vulnerable as everyone else."The old cliché "a blow-by-blow account", really comes into its own here as football's smallest bad boy takes us from growing up poor on the mean streets of West London to earning a fortune in the Premiership.
A self-confessed--and largely unrepentant--scrapper both on and off the pitch from his days as an apprentice, Wise's talent has always gone hand in hand with his temper.
A key member with Vinnie Jones and Justin Fashanu of Wimbledon's infamous Crazy Gang, he made a virtue of towering self-belief and a healthy disregard for the game's sacred cows. Subsequent performances for his country and as captain of Chelsea have brought his blend of sublime skill and fierce competitiveness to the international stage.
It's a combination which has yielded enormous success and conflict with the authorities both within the game and beyond. In 1995 everything changed with a conviction and prison sentence for assaulting a taxi driver. Wise was released after a few hours on appeal and freely admits that the experience of helplessness was "the worst moment of my life".
While referees and opposition players may question whether a less combative Dennis Wise emerged, there's a maturity of insight into the much envied life of the professional footballer in these pages that suggests there's more to him than his public image allows.
Perhaps the frank tales of football's more brutal moments will steal the headlines, but his home-grown observations of the United Nations of Chelsea are from the heart of the current revolution in the game and make compulsive reading. --Alex Hankin
Book Jacket
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 team- mates and fans--such an enduringly popular player.
Yet, Wise has had more than his fair share of battles throughout his career. An unabashed advocate of the "physical" game, who admits that he sometimes acts before he thinks, his hot temper and volatile nature have led him into trouble, on and off the pitch. In 1995 his hardman pitch persona spilled into his private life when he found himself facing prison after being accused of attacking a taxi driver.
It was a clash with his first manager, Lawrie McMenemy, that left Wise without a club after his apprenticeship with Southampton. What seemed a disaster for the young player proved to be a blessing. He was signed up by Wimbledon and, with Vinnie Jones and John Fashanu, became one of the founding members of the infamous Crazy Gang. Defying the odds they broke into the top division and fought all the way to one of the most famous giant-killings of football history, beating Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final. But it is for their headline-grabbing off-the-pitch antics that the Crazy Gang are perhaps best remembered.
When the original gang broke up, Dennis moved to Chelsea, where he has stayed for 10 turbulent years, living through the management of Hoddle, Gullit and Vialli, and the boardroom battles of Ken Bates and Matthew Harding. The only Chelsea skipper to have lifted the FA Cup at Wembley, Dennis now captains a side packed with world- class players, yet he remains the powerhouse of the Chelsea Football Club.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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