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Author Topic: 'Arrogant' Wise: Nice article  (Read 7650 times)
Panda Paws

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« on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 06:23:46 »

Really nice piece in the Guardian today:



Wise words designed to mould Swindon in his own arrogant image

Former Millwall manager has raised Wiltshire heart rates in attempting to climb off bottom rung

Mike Anstead
Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian

Dennis Wise's career has been littered with more fights and fines than you can wave a red card at. In the era preceding Roman Abramovich's arrival at Chelsea he was the scowling face of Ken Bates's Stamford Bridge empire. At his fiery peak the midfielder was aggressive, unapologetic and, in the eyes of many, arrogant.
On the eve of the League Two season, Swindon Town's new manager has asked his players to adopt those same characteristics in the quest for promotion. Wise has yet to hang up his boots, although he will spend extended periods in the dug-out this season to concentrate on the job in hand. Sensing the repercussions of the absence of his bite, the 39-year-old is urging his players to become similarly cocky.


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"I want them to be a little bit arrogant in the way they are because I want them to enjoy playing for Swindon and be the best no matter who it is," he said. "I said to them when we played Reading [in pre-season] that these are fantastic players who are now in the Premiership.
"I told my players to think that one day they will be in their place [in the Premiership]. They have to be the best every week. If they are arrogant, and mentally and physically strong, we will be OK. I've told them to enjoy their football."

Wise's demands illustrate his desire to sculpt Wiltshire's finest in his own image. The man who, in his first managerial position, guided Millwall into Europe thanks to an FA Cup final defeat by Manchester United in 2004 claims to have received bigger offers than the one from the County Ground, but the willingness of the club to allow him to operate without interference proved crucial. "When I had a chat with them they asked me if I fancied the job and I think they expected me to say 'No,'" he said. "But I asked them whether or not I could do certain things, and told them that I would think about it.

"I wanted to run the whole shebang. At some clubs you do not get that opportunity, but they have allowed me to bring in the people I want to work with, and that was it. I was wanted at Swindon and they made me feel welcome. They wanted a change and something different."

Paul Ince could yet join as a player-coach but one already in place is Gus Poyet, the Uruguayan who partnered Wise in Chelsea's midfield. The little and large pairing is expected to attract the gaze of League Two spectators, whether they are paired on the pitch or the sidelines.

"I tried to sign him when I was at Millwall but his missus wanted to go home [to Uruguay]," said Wise. "I was close to signing him but he told me he would work with me in my next job.

"Hungary wanted him to be the national team's director of football and he turned them down to join us. I trust him and work well with him. We are here to learn, and it is only right we do it at the bottom and work up."

It is apt to describe Swindon as at the bottom. In the Premiership 12 years ago, the club now find themselves in the lowest tier of the Football League. Wise, who captained Chelsea to two FA Cup wins, the Cup Winners' Cup and a League Cup, has been given the task of resurrecting a club that had gone stale.

"They were a bunch of lads who were low of confidence and finding it hard," he said. "But with a bit of encouragement and organisation, and making them mentally strong, they have changed. It has been hard graft but they took to it after a few weeks and now they are fighting fit. The players were wearing heart-rate monitors and they can't cheat it - they have been working to their maximum. I told them I expect 110% and they have given me it."

All they are required to do now is replicate the arrogance that defined Wise's playing days.
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Forza_Swindon

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« Reply #1 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 07:33:42 »

Cheesy

It's been a while since we had such attention really.... Have been more used to the usual five lines saying how shit we are!

Good to see.
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janaage
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« Reply #2 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 08:20:58 »

I'm surprised Gus turned Hungary down to join STFC.  That's a hell of a decision, brilliant country and would have been a good opportunity for him.  Hope it works out for him here!
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Batch
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« Reply #3 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 08:30:48 »

Great article that would have slipped me by. Thanks Chris K.

On the arrogance front, I have to admit that I felt uneasy with Roberts, adnd today Bob (Monkhouse) saying we will go up.

I saw it as setting ourselves up for an almighty fall. But on reflection perhaps that is what we need. To go into a match believing we will win, that we are the best.
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Panda Paws

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« Reply #4 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 08:47:32 »

Quote from: "Batch"
Great article that would have slipped me by. Thanks Chris K.

On the arrogance front, I have to admit that I felt uneasy with Roberts, adnd today Bob (Monkhouse) saying we will go up.

I saw it as setting ourselves up for an almighty fall. But on reflection perhaps that is what we need. To go into a match believing we will win, that we are the best.


You're welcome Batch.

Got to say, I don't mind a bit of arrogance. Fine, we might fall flat on our arses, but at least they players believe they can do something - which is much more so than the past few seasons.

It's taken so long to get over that play-off season when confidence was high ... and I'm glad to see it back.
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janaage
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« Reply #5 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 08:56:45 »

Confidence is defo something we all have been lacking, it'll be interesting to see what happens if we go a goal down to Hartlepool or Barnet, whether Wise has the know how, how to get the players going again.
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adje

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« Reply #6 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 08:58:41 »

Whole page article on Poyet in the Independent too-I'd rather slip unnoticed into league 1 tbh though.
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« Reply #7 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 09:17:45 »

Quote from: "adje"
Whole page article on Poyet in the Independent too-I'd rather slip unnoticed into league 1 tbh though.


http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article1209685.ece

Gus Poyet dreams of returning to his beloved Chelsea as coach but, he tells Jason Burt, his first posting as No 2 at lowly Swindon Town is a wise move

Poyet explains: "It's a problem. Chelsea is supposed to be an English club. But it isn't. For the past 10 years there have been foreign coaches so you train the way you train in Europe. You don't have Sundays and Wednesdays off. You train every day and you are thinking football. I went to Tottenham. Typically English. Because I was 32, 33 it was good for me to have two days off but I couldn't see myself at 23 having that. It's too difficult. I had got used to training every day and thinking football every day. There are not too many players who can switch on, switch off. I talked to Jose about that."

There is no envy that his time at Chelsea was pre-Roman Abramovich and Mourinho. "You had to be lucky to be at the club at the right time," Poyet, who was invited back for the club's centenary celebrations, says. "For the players now everything is perfect. They have everything. They cannot complain. We were one step behind. We were very good in cups [they won the FA Cup, European Cup-Winners' Cup and Super Cup] because we were good at saying, 'This is the game, we have to win this game'. But it was difficult to do that over 38 games." But that is top-level football. Now he is at the lowest professional tier. "There's a big difference for sure," Poyet concedes of his new environment. Indeed, he canvassed opinion before taking up the Swindon post. "I was told, 'Don't panic, don't get frustrated'. That is the biggest danger. They are different players. Different levels of quality, fitness, technical ability, concentration, decisions. But we're putting things in place. And some of those things are what we used to do at Chelsea."

Poyet is no fan of Mourinho's predecessor, Claudio Ranieri. He respects the Italian's right to change things but the inference is clear. "Rotation. I hated it. I don't care how many players you have got, you need a core of eight and if you change it, it's bad. I couldn't complain because sometimes I was playing and Franco Zola was on the bench and I'm thinking, 'What's going on here? Something's wrong'. I didn't complain, but I didn't like it. Then there were different tactics as well: 4-4-2; 3-5-2; 3-4-3. I was thinking, 'What's going on?' You didn't know where you were playing. I saw Dennis in four different positions in the same game. The captain of Chelsea. That was bad. That was wrong."

Suffice to say, Swindon will be more settled. Pre-season has gone well. There is a solid defence, a promising front line. As for the midfield and both Wise, 40, and Poyet have registered as players but hope that their involvement is limited - "it's the worst position to play in this league" - even if the manager is still, according to his assistant, the "best runner" and fittest person at the club.

"We have a big chance of something," Poyet says of Swindon's prospects. "This is a club that has been up and down, up and down. But there is potential. The whole city is expecting us to do well and we need to convince them. We are ready and we want to do well in the first few games and then play in front of a full stadium. That will make it easier. I know that. For seven years I played for Zaragoza and the only times it was full was Real Madrid, Barcelona, and the semi-final of the European Cup-Winners' Cup." Heady heights. But first the foothills. "I want to see if I can deal with the pressure," says Poyet who will patrol the touchline today with Wise - for the first half at least - up in the stands. "If we are good together, then who knows? Maybe we'll stay as a team. I just want to work and learn and enjoy the moment."

And so to Hartlepool. Poyet is bursting at the prospect. He was so excited by this season that, back in Uruguay, when he got the fixture list through he unfolded his map of England. "And I got all the teams in the division and I put them on the map with pins to see where we will play. The first two away games, Hartlepool and Darlington, could not have been further. It's good. Then there is Accrington Stanley. Everyone is talking about it. I know where it is and I'm pleased we are playing them. We'll be going up there by bus. We are here. We understand the situation. Of course it would be nice to travel by plane but that isn't going to happen. Not yet anyway."
---------

From the likelihood of becoming the vice-president of the Uruguayan Football Federation, and the first ex-player to do so, to Hartlepool United away on the first day of the season. It has been quite a summer's journey for Gus Poyet. The 38-year-old is the assistant manager of Swindon Town, now in League Two, having received a phone call from his former Chelsea team-mate, Dennis Wise, just as he was mulling his options having moved back to Montevideo.

"There were a few propositions including a big one - with the federation - which would have been quite strange for a former player. It has never happened in Uruguay before," Poyet says. "But it was not the right time for me. I'm too young for that... So when Dennis said 'come here', well, I wanted to do it."

Poyet, surveying Swindon's pleasant training ground just off the M4, retired last year. His contract was up at Tottenham Hotspur and, after "17 years non-stop, thinking about football 24/7", it was time for him to hang up his boots and return home. He had been away, in Europe, all that time. First in Spain - with Real Zaragoza - then London. Poyet was serious about going back to South America. So much so that he sold up and moved lock, stock and barrel to Uruguay.

"It was nice to relax," Poyet, now house-hunting outside Swindon, says. "But after six months I was shaking and thought, 'I have to do something'." It did not help that, for him and his family, the pace of life felt so different in Uruguay. "Everything is slower," he admits. "And after such a long time away it was hard to go back. There you have to work hard just to find a way to get things done."

Poyet, a powerful and prolific midfielder, had always wanted to go into management, into coaching. He talked about it throughout his playing days and especially at Chelsea. "Dennis, myself, Gianfranco Zola, Dan Petrescu, Roberto Di Matteo," he says wistfully. "We were the ones always talking about doing something together when we left." Wise, he says, was always "the main man" at Stamford Bridge as well as a "top-class" player. Poyet adds: "He made sure we were together and that was important because there were so many foreign players. He was the leader. And the supporters, also, understood it."

Indeed, Wise promised that, when the circumstances were right, he would take Poyet with him. After his time at Millwall, where he took them to the FA Cup final but left messily, and his aborted attempt to take over at Southampton, Wise pitched up at the newly relegated Swindon.

"We connected," Poyet says of the pair's relationship. "From the first day I trained at Chelsea. Sometimes you get that connection - in football, in communication, in aggression, in power, in heart. His English was difficult to understand but our families, also, got on well. We really loved the club and, to be fair, we're still in love with Chelsea." Such is Poyet's - and Wise's - love for their former club that they hope, one day, to return as manager and assistant. "Who knows," says Poyet. "I hope so."

A link exists. Glenn Hoddle started his managerial career in Wiltshire. "Yes, I'm pleased with that," says Poyet, who worked under Hoddle at Spurs rather than Chelsea. "I'm sure Glenn will be thinking, 'Oh, Gus is here', so if we can follow him it wouldn't be a bad idea. Not that I want to be the manager of England!"

Poyet's thoughts on English football are illuminating. He was quoted, by Jose Mourinho, in Gianluca Vialli's recent book on the relationship between the Premiership andSerie A, about the inability of players here to "think football". There was an important caveat that was left out. He said: "Think football, 24/7"
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janaage
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« Reply #8 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 09:23:06 »

"The whole city is expecting us to do well" ah, bless

I'm loving this national coverage!!
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« Reply #9 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 09:30:08 »

Very interesting articles. It must have taken ages to type them all out to put on here Cool
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Ralphy

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« Reply #10 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 09:55:19 »

We're back  Cool
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janaage
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« Reply #11 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 10:13:36 »

in the fourth.
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Sippo
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« Reply #12 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 10:58:05 »

There was also a bit in the sun with Wisey slating Gareth Southgate stating that all rookie managers should start at the bottom at work their way up the leagues.

Wisey is ace!  He just gets better and better Cool
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« Reply #13 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 10:59:28 »

Quote
DENNIS WISE has had a dig at Gareth Southgate by claiming rookie managers should all start at the bottom, writes GARY PAYNE.

New Swindon boss Wise led Millwall to the 2004 FA Cup final as player-manager.

He then turned down offers from Premiership clubs to learn the ropes the ‘proper’ way.

But Southgate took over Middlesbrough in June despite lacking the coaching badges required to manage in the top flight.

And Wise, 39, said: "I’m here to learn and it is only right I do it at the bottom and work up.

"I believe in taking all the coaching badges and working my way up the ladder that way.

"I was offered a much bigger job when I left Millwall but it wasn’t the right time."

And now the former Chelsea star could not be happier learning his trade in League Two.

He said: "I wanted to run the whole shebang. At some clubs you don’t get that opportunity."

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If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit...
sonic youth

« Reply #14 on: Thursday, August 3, 2006, 11:31:32 »

if we're the most arrogant team in the league and all the fans of other clubs hate our guts, i'll be happy. so long as we back that up on the pitch, of course.

interesting articles to read, cheers for posting em.
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