QUOTES BY DENNIS 1999
18 January 1999
Wise said,"That shows what strength in depth we have in the squad now.
"It wasn't our greatest performance, not by a long way. The pitch didn't help. We like to play a quick passing game but you had to be so sure of your touch on that surface and that slowed things down. But we won and that is the main thing. And it means we stay on top and as far as we are concerned, that's great. A few years back maybe that wouldn't have been the case. It might have been an extra pressure that we may have found hard to handle. Not now."
08 February 1999
"I've wanted us to win things so much since I've been here and now we're doing that,' said the 32-year-old midfielder,' but this red card thing is just killing me this season.
"It was all going perfectly against Oxford and then I didn't clear a cross very well. Dean Windass shot and
I just palmed the ball away.
"I don't know why. Well I do know why, I htought it was going in. It was instinct. I know the rules and lall that but I honestly think I was unlucky.
"If I say sorry again I don't want it to sound empty. But you can't believe how sorry I feel."
17 September 1999
"It was the best I have seen us play for a very long time,' said Wise. 'What was so exhilarating was that we proved we could step up another level, so Diddy and I just kept it simple and tried to stop Milan from playing. That way we could leave the lovely stuff to Marcel and Franco."
03 October 1999
Skipper Dennis Wise said, ' Obviously Chris is concerned about not scoring. All strikers are. We know as a team we can get the ball forward a lot quicker.
Sometimes you should put the ball in the box earlier becacuse we have got big Chris in there.
"Luca has spoken to us about it. He said if we have a chance of hitting Chris in the penalty area we should take it. He wants us to be a bit more direct."
He added," It's a very good moment for me. I don't think I had much chance of playing for England when Glenn Hoddle was the manager. But I always hoped, in the back of my mind, with Kevin Keegan if I kept playing well I might be picked.
"Reaction from the public has been briliant and I'm a hero in Turkey as well.
"I saw a man run on the pitch and tripped him up- it was an instinctive thing. It was the only time I was able to kick somebody amd not get a booking!"
05 October 1999
Chelsea 5-0 Manure
" I have never watched taht FA Cup Final video- and i don't want to. But the video of Sunday, well, that will be well worth seeing," he said.
"All I can say about it is that, yes, I fouled him and the referee was pulling the card out to book me. I couldn't have any complaint about that. Then he just kicked out at me and he was shown the red card.
But at least no one can say that him being sent off was crucial to the result. We were 2-0 up at the time and well on top. So there are no excuses. We won fair and square.
"We knew what we had to do, we all knew what jobs we had to carry out. They are the champoios of England and Europe and we had to come up with a plan to stop them - we did and it worked."
"Baba did great against Beckham," Wise said. "He was told that we needed to keep Beckham on his left foot and most of the time he was.
"We also needed to stop the ball being dinked through to Yorke and Cole. They love that kind of service so they can turn you. Myself and Didi pressurised the ball all the time and Frank Leboeuf and Jes Hogh did well against them with their tight marking.
We made sure there were no big gaps between us and the back four. They hardly ever got behind us.
" Overall, everything went right for us. I was especially pleased for Chris Sutton. He scored his first Premiership goal for us on Sunday and no one deserved it more. He has been playing really well but just hasn't been able to put the ball in the net."
With his recall to England squad for Sunday's friendly against Belgium, it was the perfect end to the week for wise.
"No one could be feeling better than me at the moment," he said.
"The crucial thing now is to make sure we build on the win. We have got some tough games coming up against Liverpool, Arsenal, Galatasaray and AC Milan.
And we go into those games with our confidence high. What we have to do is show the same attitude and approach."
27 October 1999
AC Milan 1-1 Chelsea, wise the scorer for chelsea
"This makes all that I went through worthwhile," said Wise.
"The rejection by Southampton, the prospect of the dole queue, the fight to get into the pro game. This is just a wonderful moment for me."
"I had been told to push forward when I could by Luca and that Didier Deschamps would do the holding job in midfield.
"I went forward again and Roberto Di Matteo played me a great ball that I put away under their goalkeeper.
"I love to score but this was special. It was a vital goal against one of the biggest clubs in Europe and it got us the draw we wanted.
"I can't really describe how I felt. It was superb. It was an important game anyway but after the result against Arsenal last Saturday, we needed ot show we were strong enough to come back."
"I used to watch the Italian football on Channel 4, you know, the programme Paul Elliott used to present using all those long words. I am sure that he didn't even know the meaning of some of them," said Wise.
"I would look at the San Siro and wonder what it would be like to play there. Now I know and believe me, it is special.
"This Champions League football is something different, it reallly is.
"In this competition, you are playing against the very best. Now we have shown we can compete with the best.
"This team can get better and better, We can still improve."
"He keeps everyone on their toes with his rotation system," said Wise. "I wasn't even certain that I would be playing in Milan. But the fact he left me out last week doesn't matter. We are all in this together."
"I have played in three Cup Winners' Cup campaigns and now five Champions League games, three away from home, and I have never missed a game through suspension," he said.
"Also, I have only been booked once in European football this season. It might have something to do with the fact that no one knows me on the Continent."