Dennis Wise is a visionary in the modern game

More than the odd eyebrow was raised when Dennis Wise chose to walk away from a promising managerial career at the high-profile Leeds United for an office job with Newcastle United in January, but the former Chelsea midfield player should have been hailed as a visionary. Wise was certainly ahead of his time in recognising that the trappings of the managerial office are not what they once were, a view confirmed by this week's remarkable events at Newcastle, West Ham United and even Manchester City.

Wise calculated that a seven-figure salary for scouting and signing players was a better bet than a considerably larger one for the far more onerous job of turning them into a winning team, a rationale that makes suggestions that he is in line to replace Kevin Keegan seem rather spurious.

Wise may be many things but he is certainly not daft, and through conversations with his friend Tony Jimenez will have concluded that the best way to ensure a lengthy stay at St James’ Park is to remain as part of the back-room team despite Keegan’s belated attempt to oust him, where he can wield power without having to take responsibility. For most managers these days the situation is reversed, as they are the first to take the blame for decisions they have not been party to.

The most intriguing question is which other managers and former players will follow Wise’s lead into directorships, or other fancy job titles? Keegan, Alan Curbishley and even Luiz Felipe Scolari have discovered to their cost the limits of managerial influence, while Mark Hughes’s joy at being handed Robinho may soon be tempered by the knowledge that he is about to be given other players he has not selected or, as happened to Keegan and Curbishley, lose those he wanted to keep.

Of the top ten Premier League clubs only Manchester United, Arsenal and possibly Aston Villa are run on traditional lines, with the manager the single most important person in the player recruitment process. The influence wielded by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger has taken decades to accumulate and will not be seen again, while Martin O’Neill is fortunate to be working with the far-sighted and sensible of the new breed of owners, Randy Lerner.

The theme music to that 1990’s classic television programme Fantasy Football League began with a Barry Davies commentary asking who would be a football manager? It may not be long before that question is no longer rhetorical.

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One of Jose Mourinho’s favourite lines whilst at Chelsea was that claiming it takes time to build a title-winning team is “the biggest lie in football.” And given the Portuguese’s penchant for deception he should recognise a porky pie when he sees one.

Mourinho has another opportunity to repeat his unique achievement of winning the Premier League in his first season in charge at Inter Milan, though as at Stamford Bridge he has the huge advantage of taking over a team of champions.

Chelsea may not have won the league prior to Mourinho’s arrival, as Roberto Mancini’s Inter did last season, but they had finished a strong second to Arsenal’s team of Invincibles and included such world class players as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele and Joe Cole, with Petr Cech and Arjen Robben already on the way. The spine of Chelsea’s title-winning side was already in place, with the replacement of Hernan Crespo with Didier Drogba Mourinho’s only real change.

The situation could not be more different at Manchester City, where of the current squad only Robinho is guaranteed to start next season at Eastlands. In this context the stated ambition of the new owners to win the 2009-10 Premier League could not be more daunting for Mark Hughes, or whoever replaces him, and City’s probable failure to meet their high targets will add to Mourinho’s legend, which is just the way he likes it.

As with many of Mourinho’s mindgames, the “give me time!” plea employed by many managers contains a kernel of truth.

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As anyone who has taken on the Herculean task of interviewing him would confirm, it is difficult to feel sorry for Shaun Wright-Phillips, a young man as uncooperative as he is inarticulate, but his plight over the last seven days is deserving of considerable sympathy.

After spending three years counting his money and first-team opportunities on the bench at Chelsea – the former with a children’s calculator and the latter with the fingers of his right-hand – the England midfield player plucked up the courage to return to Manchester City in search of regular football, only for his new club to promptly go out and sign Robinho, the player whose imminent arrival had finally persuaded him to leave Stamford Bridge.

It may take a while, but anyone with a spare couple of hours at Eastlands should sit down and explain to Wright-Phillips the meaning of the word irony.

Comments

[Turbo]

We all have to work within a framework. We all have to put up with things, in the work-place, that are not ideal. If we have an opportunity then we try to change them but its not possible we carry on and do the best we can.

Kevin Keegan walked away, gave in, threw his rattle out of the pram. That's the action of a selfish man, not one who loves, and is loyal to, the club. He has let the supporters down. Quite how NUFC fans can see this as some sort of moral stance I don't know but it is plain to see he doesn't deserve the respect they give him.

Then again, I'm not from Newcastle so clearly I can't be expected to 'understand'.

[Ollie]

Fact.. Three of Toons best players this season have been the new players sourced by the much maligned Wise, signed with the approval of Keegan and incidentally, used to great effect by him, apart from the Arsenal game.
KK by his own admission had not watched a game of football for 3 yrs prior to his appointment. He had limited knowlegde of modern players apart from the big names. He needed help in sourcing players. But as Manager, must have the final say

[h. a. grudge]

Ben has it right.
Most of the people who have commented here should sit down with SWP when he has irony explained to him.

[Christopher Wright]

Can't see Wise is worth tuppence ha'penny so far. If the club want to save money why not sack him and Ashley's cronies?

But the club has missed a trick. The Wise strategy could have nurtured a good reserve team (not a Keegan forte, admittedly) - while other money could have kept KK happy regarding the first team.

"No one wanted the Newcastle job" says one of you.

Give it to me - I'll do it. For a tenth of what Wise is on.

[norman maines]

Wise a visionary !!!!! Wise benefited from being a close friend of a multi millionairre who happened to take over a football club. He never achieved anything like KKs footballing achievements and ask any Leeds fan who was responsible for their team when Wise was "MANAGER". As for the current fad of employing a team of backroom staff to ease the pressure on the manager this is nonesense. The footballing world has never been smaller with travel as simple as it could be via private planes, communication easier via a whole array of medium including email and Video conferencing. The current trend is just another opportunity to give 'never weres' fat salaries from the huge sums of money football now generates. CHANGE does not equal PROGRESS

[Barry]

Don't forget also, Roy Keane at Sunderland has often talked of having total control of transfer policy. So there's at least 5 clubs, probably more, where the manager is in charge.

[John]

Wise simply hasn't done his job at Newcastle and he's the one that should be getting sacked. It amazes me that he can get an alleged £1.5 million a year for what he's been doing. For example which players has he sold and which ones has he signed? Have his transfer dealings strengthened or weakened the team? Has he built a good working relationship with the team coach and involved him in all transfer market activity? Has he, along with the team coach, identified potential signings and worked to sign them? All he has done is sell Milner against the coach's wishes and also tried to sell other key players, again against the coach's wishes. Plus he managed to sign a couple of unknown players on the last day of the transfer window who the team coach had never even seen play.

[Jeff, Birmingham]

Spot on about Randy Lerner
With other clubs switching managers in and out with frequency maybe the Randy/Martin partnership will lead Villa into top 4

[David]

The thing that many of these comments do not seem to understand (which I presume are largely made by people nowhere near Newcastle) is that the central issue about NUFC and it history is loyalty. The supporters in Newcastle get criticised for not being smart by outsiders, but what outsiders see as backwardness is actually loyalty at a painful level. Loyalty is valued at the highest high level here. Therefore, the offense in the Keegan fiasco is not him leaving, it is how it was done because it was huge breach of loyalty to the supporters and the history of the club by rank outsiders that do not understand why the stands are full of >50,000 optimists very week.

The club has not been as successful as the supporters like to believe, but in the NUFC case, style actually counts. Therefore, the backroom behaviour of someone like Wise (even though he could be successful many places), goes completely contrary to the history and sensibilities of the club. He offends their values because this whole mess reeks of such disingenuous behaviour.

Therefore I ask "outsiders" to either come to Newcastle and actually develop an understanding of the real relationship between the supporters and the team, so simply shut up because you are too ignorant about this team and the supporters to make any relevant comment.

[adam smith]

Wise the visionary may soon be out of a job if NUFC are taken over - and what the article is MISSING is that he was starting to struggle at leeds as poyet had left for spurs!

Also here is a vision for the visonary wise dont come upto tyneside as you and ashley are the most hated people here!

[Neil]

We get the point of the article, but leopards don't change their spots. If he was really a visionary, he would know how untenable his position would become if he was seen to play Brutus to Keegans Caesar. No he is just a wide boy out to make a fast easy buck off his supposed friend Ashley, not really caring what devastation he leaves in his wake or chaos he causes

[Oz]

Ben, thanks for enlightening us numpties. Don't know what we'd do without a bright lad like you to put us right. As it happens, most commentators here seem to understand the article perfectly well. Most also have Wise's card well and truly marked. While the article describes him as visionary, albeit with tongue slightly in cheek, most here rightly see his behaviour as opportunist and often cowardly. None of that conflicts with the article. Wise? Maybe. Visionanary? Hardly. Honourable? Never.

[Snoogy Doogy]

Wise scouts and buys the players and then hands them over to the "manager" who then has to try and cobble together some kind of team. I think the general opinion on this page is that Wise isn't very popular or in any way good at his job. With opinions like this very much in the public domain, who in their right mind would take on the manager's job at Newcastle? I can even reveal that Wise once tried to sign me after taking advice from Liverpool owner Tom Hicks.

[Ian C]

Every pantomime needs a villain and a hero; so step forward DW and KK; KK must have known long before now that his powers were limited; suggests he needed the job/money? DW was a player of limited ability who made the best out of what he had. He was also the psyco (like Pearce or Hunter or Cantona) that you love to have in your side but loathe if he's in the opposition. He's done well wherever he's been, even at tough places like Millwall and Leeds. Get real Toon Army.

[peter yiannis]

So much for freedom of expression !
You never bothered to publish my entry.
At least be civil and give me a reason, or are you afraid of criticism?

[andy_brfc]

well said ben - it seems most newcastle fans on here clearly haven't understood the article!

[andy_brfc]

er....blackburn rovers - 7th...

run as a true football club. whilst we're a small town, we compete with the big city clubs because the manager is left alone to run the football side of the business..

everton - moyes only ever picks the players - not kenwright.

aston villa - its not randy lerner - its martin o 'neil who picks them.

a lazy bit of journalism!

agree with the overall sentiment though! wise has played a blinder getting paid millions with no stress.

"Mourinho has another opportunity to repeat his unique achievement of winning the Premier League in his first season in charge at Inter Milan"..........its called serie A....

[Ken Macartney]

Football teams are successful because of the skills and ability of the team manager. If you take the focus away by structuring the club in such a way that the manager loses control of the players he needs to form his team then success will never be achieved.
Alex Ferguson is the perfect example, and what English football needs is to develop highly skilled and passionate managers that can be european and world beaters.

[Blue]

I would disagree strongly with your view that only Man U, Arsenal and Villa's managers choose their own players out of all the top ten clubs. David Moyes has consistently been able to choose his personnel and has done an excellent job at it. I also think that Southgate at Boro gets very good support from Gibson (although their top ten status may be more contentious). Of course, you may have meant the current top ten, in which case you are more or less correct, but that would be a quite pointless and arbitrary distinction to make so early in the season.

[Ben]

What a bunch of numpty's

You've all lost the point of the article.

Its not that Wise is, or has ever been a visionary manager. Matt is saying that he's astute in swapping a far more demanding and stressful role for one which pays well and has less responsibilty. He gets to travel the world scouting and then can hang the blame for his acquisitions on the manager for not getting the best out of the players.

Your replies prove that most footy fans are muppets.

[AC]

Er..... only 3 clubs in the top 10 run the traditional way? Arsenal, Man Utd, and Villa? what about the club that finished 5th last year? I think you'll find Mr Moyes is in charge of who he wants to sign......

[Perce]

Dennis Wise - for visionary read `opportunist `.
What next - the players send their mates out to play on their behalf while they sit in the stands ?
Wise will no doubt recruit his big mates to do the managing so he can stand on their shoulders when it`s going well, then stab them in the back when it goes wrong.
Football supporters may give every impression of being passionate blinkered crackpots, and why not, but we do pay for the privilege.
When our money goes on paying squads of
pragmatic types attracted by the smell of a quick buck, (and I don`t mean the Chelsea team), the likes of Wise and Lambias, the football assassins, it`s time for a re-assessment.
Wise can be assured of a warm reception at SJP, should he be brave enough to put in an appearance, and at the back of his mind he knows that Ashley will be down the road as soon as someone with a big enough cheque steps through the door.
Fans have long memories, Mr Wise, and what goes around comes around.
You`re a here today, gone tomorrow snake in the grass.

Perce

[Brian Cummings]

Wise is the sort of guy who can smile as he stabs you in the back! That is his main trait, experienced over many years by many people. Capable of committing the most horrendous fouls against fellow players, wearing a wide glorious smile! If that is how you define a visionary it differs from my interpretation of Mr. Wise, who I believe to be the absolute Coward of Cowards. Hiding behind some kind of impennetrable shield, no doubt winning... (Not sure what!) at the expense of someone else, in the same 'smiley' way he used to innocently appeal to Referee's when retaliation for his thuggery was experienced. Dennis Wise could have achieved 'Legend' status, had he stayed with Leeds and succeeded. He chose the only way he really knows.... the way of the cowering cheat!

[beandog]

The only possible definition of the word 'visionary' that could apply to Dennis Wise is this one:

"a person given to fanciful speculations and enthusiasms with little regard for what is actually possible"

As far as the commonly-used application of the term goes, this vile little pest is about as visionary as that mighty thinker Joey Barton.

I think we can all see that the term 'opportunist' is far more appropriate here.