Dennis Wise was a footballer who seemed to pick up medals and silverware with consummate ease and who could pick a fight just as readily, if not more so.

His first key fight was with Lawrie McMenemy. He lost. Another London discovery of Bob Higgins, Dennis had enjoyed the set-up at the Saints’ School of Excellence at Slough to such an extent that he resisted the interest of a London club or two to join Southampton. He had progressed to an apprenticeship when he went to the aid of Reuben Agboola in the night-club incident. Dennis was fined two weeks’ wages and sent home but, as he explains in his autobiography, he then overplayed his hand, upon his return to the fold, in attempting to bid-up his apprentice’s wages. McMenemy handed him his registration forms and Dennis’s first-team debut for the Saints would be delayed for another 20 years.

In the meantime, he’d made a habit of playing in Cup Finals, including four in the FA Cup – taking the free-kick that led to Wimbledon’s shock-defeat of Liverpool in 1988; losing £100 in a gamesmanship-bet with Eric Cantona as he shaped to take a penalty in Manchester United’s thrashing of Chelsea in 1994; captaining Chelsea to victory v Middlesbrough in 1997; and player-managing Millwall to another defeat by United in 2004.

Who would have predicted that the teenage brat would become a longstanding captain, let alone a manager?

He was Chelsea’s most successful captain until surpassed by John Terry and was treasured by his chairman, Ken Bates. Dennis was his “constant thread”, as the club brought in more and more foreign stars, two of whom – Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli – would go on to manage Dennis. It was crucial for Bates, as he makes abundantly clear on the Dennis Wise video, that his captain “stamped his authority” on a dressing-room of burgeoning international talent. “Mister Chelsea”, as Bates called him, won 21 caps for England while at the Bridge, too many of them for Dennis’s liking outside his favoured position of left midfield.

A year after that Cup Final with Millwall, he pulled out of management for a while to play Championship football – a dozen games each for the Saints and Coventry, although his stint at St Mary’s culminated in his jointly caretaking with Dave Bassett, between Harry Redknapp’s departure and George Burley’s arrival. After his spell with Coventry, under his former Leicester boss, ex-Saint Micky Adams, he reverted to management, for 2006-07, initially with League Two Swindon. He very soon left for Elland Road, though, to manage for his great admirer, Ken Bates. When Leeds were duly relegated to League One, with a deduction of 15 points, Bates kept faith with Dennis, whose side went into the New Year lying third, despite the docked points.

Yet he thereupon left for Newcastle, to become what the club’s owner, Mike Ashley, described as a “‘football-related’ executive director.” Manager Kevin Keegan, an outspoken opponent of that kind of appointment, soon resigned and Wise himself left when Alan Shearer arrived, in April 2009, as interim manager. But the acrimony lingered on. Keegan won his case for constructive dismissal, citing Wise’s involvement, while Sir Bobby Robson told the Sun that, while he could “forgive most people,” he was “not sure I can forgive Wise for what he did to my club.” Dennis was soon back in the game, with non-league Chalfont St Peter, but in a promotional role – “purely on the community side,” the club stressed. Quite a winding-down for a player who had made such a combative contribution to English football.

Speaking as a Sky pundit in 2013, Gary Neville described Dennis as his dirtiest-ever opponent. In his turn, Dennis nominates Jimmy Case, from his Southampton days, as “the hardest person I have ever faced.” It takes one to know one.  When Dennis Wise came on as sub for Southampton in August 2005, he became the club’s oldest-ever debutant at 38 years and 228 days. Remarkably, the Saints’ youngest-ever player came off the bench in the same match (see the details and match report in Theo Walcott’s profile). Dennis had won his first FA Cup medal the year before Theo was born. Dennis also became the oldest Southampton player to score a goal when 42 days after his debut he scored vs Ipswich Town at Portman Road.