Telegraph 2/2/07
Talking Football: Wise tackles Leeds plight head on
By Tim Rich
There are not many men who, having taken Leeds United to the foot of what in Yorkshire they still call the Second Division, would show their face in public, much less pose for photographs. Dennis Wise has been called many things but never a coward.
He is presenting a cheque for £420,000 to the Hunslet Boys and Girls Club on behalf of the Barclays Spaces for Sport scheme. It will pay for an Astroturf pitch, changing facilities and much else beside in an area of Leeds cut off from the glass and steel of the city centre. It is appropriately close to Elland Road and was built in the days of Don Revie, when the club's horizons stretched to European Cup finals rather than a desperate scramble to finish fourth bottom of the game's second tier.
"I learnt my football in places like these," said Wise. "Kicking against a wall or playing for my dad's team, not on Astroturf but on that red, stony gravel, when your knees were full of cuts and grazes, trying to control a football against much bigger people. It toughened me up."
Wise breaks off to talk to a lad who impressed him, discovers he plays for a team called Yorkshire Amateurs, and then moves on. To some older Leeds supporters, it must be difficult to accept being taken to the brink by a chairman, Ken Bates, and a management team of Wise and Gustavo Poyet, who are not just southern but dyed with the blue of Chelsea. They have put themselves in the hands of pagan gods.
"The Yorkshire public have actually been very good," Wise reflected. "They know it has been difficult but they know, too, that we will give everything."
There has not been time for either he or Poyet to find anywhere permanent to live. Hotel beds do have a pen and a notepad beside them, which Wise has turned to.
After Manchester United's defeat at Arsenal, their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, complained he was unable to sleep as his mind turned over the final fateful minutes at the Emirates Stadium which cost his side defeat.
"You do get things in your head," Wise said. "I have a pen next to my bed and if a thought won't go away, I'll wake up and write it down. When something's bothering me, I say to myself: 'Come on, relax for an hour or two and the thoughts will come.' "
It is two years since Bates bought Leeds, returning to the north where he first made his money. They had just drawn 1-1 with Cardiff in front of a crowd of almost 30,000 at Elland Road and were 14th in the Championship. For Leeds' last home fixture, a 3-2 defeat by West Bromwich, the gate was just over 20,000 and that is considered reasonable.
The top tier of the East Stand is now closed, saving £200,000. The offices are no longer cleaned every day and orders for fresh flowers have been cancelled, saving £12,000 a year. The rented goldfish, symbols of the Ridsdale years, have long since departed.
In his three months at Leeds, Wise has brought in a raft of loan signings, dismissed Paul Butler as captain, been forced to sell Matthew Kilgallon, perhaps the club's best defender, to Sheffield United. He has attempted to remedy what he saw as a lack of basic fitness and, in Bates' words, broken up a dressing room "cabal" he considered was affecting the club's performances.
"It's not enjoyable but it's necessary," said Wise. "Listen, if your gaffer comes up to you and says your articles have been no good, you will last a certain amount of time and, if you don't respond, you will go. It's simple. But I am worried about Leeds United, not individuals and their feelings."
All this furious activity has not, however, improved the club's position. Leeds were second bottom when he arrived in October and on Tuesday they sank to the foot of the Championship in bizarre circumstances. They had actually beaten Hull when news came through that Southend had scored three times at Birmingham, condemning Leeds to last place on goal difference. David Healy, their outstanding striker, fractured an arm.
"Being last doesn't bother me," said Wise, who has succeeded in far more improbable tasks, winning the FA Cup with Wimbledon and taking Millwall to the final. "We have some very good matches coming up; Queens Park Rangers, Luton, Norwich, Ipswich. If you said we had to play West Brom, Birmingham, Preston and Southampton home and away, it might be quite different. It has crossed my mind that we might not survive but I fully believe we will stay up and, if I didn't, I should go now."
Talking Football: Wise tackles Leeds plight head on
By Tim Rich
There are not many men who, having taken Leeds United to the foot of what in Yorkshire they still call the Second Division, would show their face in public, much less pose for photographs. Dennis Wise has been called many things but never a coward.
He is presenting a cheque for £420,000 to the Hunslet Boys and Girls Club on behalf of the Barclays Spaces for Sport scheme. It will pay for an Astroturf pitch, changing facilities and much else beside in an area of Leeds cut off from the glass and steel of the city centre. It is appropriately close to Elland Road and was built in the days of Don Revie, when the club's horizons stretched to European Cup finals rather than a desperate scramble to finish fourth bottom of the game's second tier.
"I learnt my football in places like these," said Wise. "Kicking against a wall or playing for my dad's team, not on Astroturf but on that red, stony gravel, when your knees were full of cuts and grazes, trying to control a football against much bigger people. It toughened me up."
Wise breaks off to talk to a lad who impressed him, discovers he plays for a team called Yorkshire Amateurs, and then moves on. To some older Leeds supporters, it must be difficult to accept being taken to the brink by a chairman, Ken Bates, and a management team of Wise and Gustavo Poyet, who are not just southern but dyed with the blue of Chelsea. They have put themselves in the hands of pagan gods.
"The Yorkshire public have actually been very good," Wise reflected. "They know it has been difficult but they know, too, that we will give everything."
There has not been time for either he or Poyet to find anywhere permanent to live. Hotel beds do have a pen and a notepad beside them, which Wise has turned to.
After Manchester United's defeat at Arsenal, their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, complained he was unable to sleep as his mind turned over the final fateful minutes at the Emirates Stadium which cost his side defeat.
"You do get things in your head," Wise said. "I have a pen next to my bed and if a thought won't go away, I'll wake up and write it down. When something's bothering me, I say to myself: 'Come on, relax for an hour or two and the thoughts will come.' "
It is two years since Bates bought Leeds, returning to the north where he first made his money. They had just drawn 1-1 with Cardiff in front of a crowd of almost 30,000 at Elland Road and were 14th in the Championship. For Leeds' last home fixture, a 3-2 defeat by West Bromwich, the gate was just over 20,000 and that is considered reasonable.
The top tier of the East Stand is now closed, saving £200,000. The offices are no longer cleaned every day and orders for fresh flowers have been cancelled, saving £12,000 a year. The rented goldfish, symbols of the Ridsdale years, have long since departed.
In his three months at Leeds, Wise has brought in a raft of loan signings, dismissed Paul Butler as captain, been forced to sell Matthew Kilgallon, perhaps the club's best defender, to Sheffield United. He has attempted to remedy what he saw as a lack of basic fitness and, in Bates' words, broken up a dressing room "cabal" he considered was affecting the club's performances.
"It's not enjoyable but it's necessary," said Wise. "Listen, if your gaffer comes up to you and says your articles have been no good, you will last a certain amount of time and, if you don't respond, you will go. It's simple. But I am worried about Leeds United, not individuals and their feelings."
All this furious activity has not, however, improved the club's position. Leeds were second bottom when he arrived in October and on Tuesday they sank to the foot of the Championship in bizarre circumstances. They had actually beaten Hull when news came through that Southend had scored three times at Birmingham, condemning Leeds to last place on goal difference. David Healy, their outstanding striker, fractured an arm.
"Being last doesn't bother me," said Wise, who has succeeded in far more improbable tasks, winning the FA Cup with Wimbledon and taking Millwall to the final. "We have some very good matches coming up; Queens Park Rangers, Luton, Norwich, Ipswich. If you said we had to play West Brom, Birmingham, Preston and Southampton home and away, it might be quite different. It has crossed my mind that we might not survive but I fully believe we will stay up and, if I didn't, I should go now."