INTERVIEW

Bad boys good to have around
By Ken Lawrence
Friday, February 5, 1999

Unpalatable as it may sound to the do-gooders of the game, Dennis Wise has only been doing his duty in getting sent off four times this season.

At least, that is what the vast majority of managers would tell you in private.

For, while it may not be politically correct for them to say so openly, they cherish their bad boys .

The only aspect of Wise's latest red card - against Oxford in Wednesday's FA Cup fourth-round replay win - that will have surprised his managerial admirers is that it was for something as soft as two handling offences rather than for the more combative misdemeanours that have made the Chelsea captain one of football's most abrasive characters.

For while opposing managers might have a weekly moan about the rough treatment handed out by Wise to their players, those who do not possess his equal in their line-up would join the rush to sign him if Chelsea were open to offers.

No shock, then, that manager Gianluca Vialli refuses to join in the general condemnation of his captain by those outside of Stamford Bridge.

Wise has the same devilish traits as Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Paul Ince, Vinnie Jones, Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit. Before them came Nobby Stiles, Peter Storey and Stamford Bridge's original bad boy, Ron 'Chopper' Harris.

Nobody knows more about the game's rascals than Dave Bassett, who founded the infamous Wimbledon Crazy Gang and discovered Wise and his equally errant pal Vinnie Jones.

'There have always been players like Cantona, Wisey, Vinnie, Storey and Vieira down through the years and they all have one thing in common - they are all winners,' said Bassett.

'Without people like that in your side you can rarely, if ever, be successful.

'Of course they do wrong things and they rightfully get punished.

'But look at Petit and Vieira at Arsenal - they may be World Cup winners but Arsene Wenger sees one of their great attributes as their ability to put their foot in, go in where it hurts and, if necessary, take no prisoners.

'Understandably, people want to see the pretty things of football, the more poetic aspects. But there has always been a dark side to the game.' All the above players regularly incurred the wrath of officialdom and invoked condemnation for disfiguring the beautiful game.

You might hit them with Football Association suspensions and fines, hurt them in the pocket by docking their wages, even transfer them when they finally step over the line once too often.

But you will never rob them of the basic instinct to carry out the necessary evil that so often distinguishes a side which is successful from one that may be pretty to watch but does not possess that killer touch.

So while Vialli may have been frustrated by Wise's latest transgression, the manager proved in his public support of the midfielder that he understands and views will be counterbalanced by the extent of disquiet that the ex-England coach's business activities causes among other members of the selection panel.

Additionally, the views of Nationwide, the new ¢G15million sponsors of the England team whose unwillingness to see Hoddle remain in charge spelled his end, will be taken on board. The company is known to want a coach with an unblemished reputation. accepts why Wise will now add to the 10 games he has been suspended for this season.

Bassett said: 'When you are a manager and you pick someone like Dennis Wise you know exactly what you are getting - someone who will not be bossed around, who will be verbal and aggressive as well as being able to play.

'Cantona was incredibly talented, but he stood apart, he demanded to be taken seriously and insisted that no one was going to mess with him.

'Players like that are vital to any successful team because when things are not going so well, when the game has gone flat or the opposition are trying to dictate to you, a Cantona, a Wise, a Vieira or a Stiles will take the fight back to them.

'They will stand up and be counted when the going gets tough.

'However, sometimes there can be an unpleasant side.

'For instance Vinnie once elbowed Graham Rix while playing for me and that was totally out of order, the kind of thing you can never condone.

'Yet when players have that combative edge you know they are going to be sent off at some stage.

'You have to accept that because tough players, the ones who are considered bad boys but who refuse to be intimidated, will cross the line at times.'

Wise, Jones or Harris could be called cynical and malicious, but they are often heroes to their club's supporters and perceived as loveable rogues by their managers.

'You never heard Alex Ferguson criticising Keane,' Bassett said. 'Wenger will love the way that Vieira and Petit get stuck in. They are the two top managers in England.

'Remember when the current England manager Howard Wilkinson was at Leeds, he bought Vinnie Jones to help him out of the old Second Division.

'In a football team, it takes all kinds to be successful.'