Independent 22/6/07
Wise vows to 'get things right' at Elland Road
By Jon Culley
Published: 22 June 2007
With his recruiting plans limited by a transfer embargo and pre-season training only 10 days away, Dennis Wise may have been taking a closer interest than usual in the youngsters being coached as he was shown round a new inner-city sports facility in a run-down industrial area close to the centre of Leeds.
The Leeds United manager, invited to open the £420,000 Barclays Spaces for Sport project at Hunslet Boys and Girls Club yesterday, admitted that he had already seen 10 potential targets slip through his grasp as he waits for a lifting of the block imposed by the Football League after relegated Leeds went into administration.
"Players who are on frees or have turned down contracts get jittery and want things sorted out, they don't want to wait," he said. "We have earmarked players we want and asked them to be patient but there are a lot, maybe 10, who have already gone somewhere else.
"It is frustrating but that is the situation we are in. Hopefully in July it will be sorted and we can get in players who are right for what we need." There is another source of dismay. Despite the £35m debt that forced Leeds to call in administrators KPMG at the beginning of May, at the cost of a 10-point penalty and certain relegation to League One, players still equate the club with lucrative contracts.
"That's very disappointing," Wise said. "Leeds are still a big draw and because it is Leeds the question being asked even now is 'how much?' People seem to think we are going to pay loads of money but that mistake was made before and it is not going to be made again."
None of which makes it any easier for Wise to embark on the fresh start he craves after "the strangest season of my life" left the club facing a bleak future and his own reputation, put on the line when he and his assistant, Gus Poyet, quit the relatively safety of Swindon for the turmoil of Elland Road last October, seriously damaged. Ironically, the two clubs will play in the same division next season after Paul Sturrock picked up where Wise left off to win promotion from League Two.
It is mending that reputation, one suspects, that is Wise's most potent motivation as he prepares to negotiate a new season in circumstances alien to Leeds and a long way from the glitz to which he was accustomed at Chelsea not so long ago.
"It is no good harping on about last year, it is gone, we are relegated," he said. "But I'm not down on the floor. You learn to expect anything in football and for all the things that happened here last season, there were a couple at Millwall, which I cannot talk about, that were actually worse. You pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get on with it.
"I want to get things right, me and Gus both do, and I'm sure there are a few players still here who feel the same way. There is a motivation to prove we can turn it round." And if there are moments when he might need to reassure himself that the task is still within his compass he can fall back on a network of friends in the game, not in whom to seek solace, he insists, but on whose advice, given over time, he can draw.
"When things are going badly, you learn," he said. "I have spoken to a lot of people, to Luca [Vialli], to Ruud [Gullit] to Dave Bassett, a lot of people. I got on very well with a lot of people and they will always give you advice and try to help you.
"I had a letter from Sir Alex [Ferguson], which I did not expect. I wouldn't reveal what was in it but some of the things he said were fantastic and it does make you stronger.
"But while you can listen to what other people say, you are the one who has to make it work and if you do it your own way and you succeed it is great.
"I will take advice but I will do it the way I want to do it and I will fail or succeed my way."The Leeds United Football Club manager Dennis Wise was appearing at the Hunslet Boys and Girls Club in south Leeds, for the official opening of a new site on behalf of Barclays Spaces for Sports. Following a £420,000 cash injection from Barclays, the site has benefited from a new third-generation artificial grass pitch and a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) with associated fencing and floodlighting, plus the refurbishment of an existing MUGA with a third-generation surface. With the backing of Leeds United FC, the site is part of a £30m investment from the Barclays Spaces for Sports initiative to create sustainable sports facilities across the UK.
Wise vows to 'get things right' at Elland Road
By Jon Culley
Published: 22 June 2007
With his recruiting plans limited by a transfer embargo and pre-season training only 10 days away, Dennis Wise may have been taking a closer interest than usual in the youngsters being coached as he was shown round a new inner-city sports facility in a run-down industrial area close to the centre of Leeds.
The Leeds United manager, invited to open the £420,000 Barclays Spaces for Sport project at Hunslet Boys and Girls Club yesterday, admitted that he had already seen 10 potential targets slip through his grasp as he waits for a lifting of the block imposed by the Football League after relegated Leeds went into administration.
"Players who are on frees or have turned down contracts get jittery and want things sorted out, they don't want to wait," he said. "We have earmarked players we want and asked them to be patient but there are a lot, maybe 10, who have already gone somewhere else.
"It is frustrating but that is the situation we are in. Hopefully in July it will be sorted and we can get in players who are right for what we need." There is another source of dismay. Despite the £35m debt that forced Leeds to call in administrators KPMG at the beginning of May, at the cost of a 10-point penalty and certain relegation to League One, players still equate the club with lucrative contracts.
"That's very disappointing," Wise said. "Leeds are still a big draw and because it is Leeds the question being asked even now is 'how much?' People seem to think we are going to pay loads of money but that mistake was made before and it is not going to be made again."
None of which makes it any easier for Wise to embark on the fresh start he craves after "the strangest season of my life" left the club facing a bleak future and his own reputation, put on the line when he and his assistant, Gus Poyet, quit the relatively safety of Swindon for the turmoil of Elland Road last October, seriously damaged. Ironically, the two clubs will play in the same division next season after Paul Sturrock picked up where Wise left off to win promotion from League Two.
It is mending that reputation, one suspects, that is Wise's most potent motivation as he prepares to negotiate a new season in circumstances alien to Leeds and a long way from the glitz to which he was accustomed at Chelsea not so long ago.
"It is no good harping on about last year, it is gone, we are relegated," he said. "But I'm not down on the floor. You learn to expect anything in football and for all the things that happened here last season, there were a couple at Millwall, which I cannot talk about, that were actually worse. You pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get on with it.
"I want to get things right, me and Gus both do, and I'm sure there are a few players still here who feel the same way. There is a motivation to prove we can turn it round." And if there are moments when he might need to reassure himself that the task is still within his compass he can fall back on a network of friends in the game, not in whom to seek solace, he insists, but on whose advice, given over time, he can draw.
"When things are going badly, you learn," he said. "I have spoken to a lot of people, to Luca [Vialli], to Ruud [Gullit] to Dave Bassett, a lot of people. I got on very well with a lot of people and they will always give you advice and try to help you.
"I had a letter from Sir Alex [Ferguson], which I did not expect. I wouldn't reveal what was in it but some of the things he said were fantastic and it does make you stronger.
"But while you can listen to what other people say, you are the one who has to make it work and if you do it your own way and you succeed it is great.
"I will take advice but I will do it the way I want to do it and I will fail or succeed my way."The Leeds United Football Club manager Dennis Wise was appearing at the Hunslet Boys and Girls Club in south Leeds, for the official opening of a new site on behalf of Barclays Spaces for Sports. Following a £420,000 cash injection from Barclays, the site has benefited from a new third-generation artificial grass pitch and a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) with associated fencing and floodlighting, plus the refurbishment of an existing MUGA with a third-generation surface. With the backing of Leeds United FC, the site is part of a £30m investment from the Barclays Spaces for Sports initiative to create sustainable sports facilities across the UK.
