😡 Newcastle's greatest villains: Dennis Wise | OneFootball

For a man who lasted just 10 months at Newcastle, Dennis Wise did a lot of damage.

The trail of destruction left from his stint as executive director of football was still being felt long after his exit.

Brought in to the role in late January of 2009, he was instantly unpopular among fans, due to being both unqualified and being the latest face of the ‘Cockney Mafia’ in power at the club.

Given what transpired in his tenure, that unpopularity only increased.

Eight months after taking over, he was at the centre of a storm which saw club legend Kevin Keegan depart under a cloud as manager.

He ultimately sued the club for unfair dismissal and won his case too, his relationship with Wise having broken down beyond repair over transfer strategy.

In court, it came to light that the former Chelsea man kept trying to force Uruguayan midfielder Ignacio González onto Keegan, having been impressed with him via videos of his Monaco spell.

Wise insisted that if Keegan were to watch clips on YouTube and give González a chance, he’d warm to the idea but the manager ‘strongly objected’ to a player clearly not up to the required standard.

On deadline day, the club signed him anyway in order to ingratiate themselves with two South American agents due to how it could help them in future.

Four days later, Keegan was gone, unable to take anymore of it.

In total, Wise brought in 15 players during his Magpies tenure, most of whom would have to be considered flops at best and utter failures at worst.

There were some hits such as Jonas Gutiérrez and Fabricio Coloccini.

Others who went on to enjoy success such as Sébastien Bassong (Keegan), Kevin Nolan, Ryan Taylor and Peter Lovenkrands (all Joe Kinnear) have their arrivals all credited to others at the club.

While some at Newcastle, notably Derek Llambias, attempted to refute such claims, the players themselves made it clear why they joined.

“I came to Newcastle because my agent knew Kevin Keegan,” Bassong told The Times. “Kevin had seen me play a few times for France Under-21s and asked me to come for a trial.”

The recruiting of Xisco (the name along will be sure to send a shudder up the spine of the Toon Army) for £5.7 million sums it all up.

He did his fair bit of damage in gutting the team too though, with James Milner sold against the manager’s wishes, soon joined by Shay Given and David Rozenhal.

April Fool’s Day 2009 proved to be a joyous one on Tyneside as Wise’s departure was confirmed, with Alan Shearer coming on board as caretaker manager hours later.

The timing of both those things can’t be a coincidence.

The rookie boss couldn’t do enough to keep his beloved boyhood club up but he’d been dealt a bad hand by the man who’d exited shortly before his arrival.

It paid a massive contributing factor to the Magpies’ disappointing relegation by the end of that season.

Even on the way out, Wise refused to take sole ownership of his part in the plight of of the north east giants which followed, talking more publicly after his exit than he did while employed.

“People like to blame me for most things!” he told the Daily Mail. “But plenty of other people have to take a bit of the shift.

“The system imposed at Newcastle just didn’t work and it is as simple as that.”

Just one of many unwise decisions made in the Ashley era.