The Lawrie McMenemy column

WATCHING Dennis Wise on I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here took me back to his days as a Saints apprentice.

I often wonder what happens to some of the youngsters I signed as schoolboys.

The likes of Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier are regularly on our television screens and well done them.

But I did not expect to see Dennis pop up in my living room as one of the so-called celebs in the jungle!

I don’t usually watch I’m A Celebrity but have watched most of the current series as I smile every time I hear his name.

He came to us through our London satellite academy - we had others in Newcastle and Bristol – from where we also recruited Steve Williams, Austin Hayes and the Wallace brothers.

In those days you could sign a schoolboy once he was 14 and I had to decide whether to give them an apprenticeship from when they left school till their 18th birthday.

Then I had to decide whether to offer a professional contract.

Most of them were desperate to get the nod but not everyone did so it was one of my worst days of the year.

If I knew we weren’t going to offer an apprenticeship I would sit the youngster down and tell him straight away. We would try to help him get another club, possibly lower down the divisions.

If I knew the youngster was getting a contract I would help him along by asking questions such as ‘how do you think your heading ability has been, your tackling, passing?’ before breaking the good news. The contract would be from their 18th birthday till the end of the season plus a year.

Dennis had a steely approach to life in general which, like Alan Ball, helped make up for his lack of height.

When he arrived in my office I knew he was one we wanted to keep.

He answered each question I asked positively. His heading, passing, tackling and shooting was excellent.

But he had me on the back foot when I gave him what I thought was good news.

He has a December birthday (he’ll be 51 next week) so it was 33 years ago that I offered him a contract for half a season plus a year.

I waited for the usual response but he just looked at me and said ‘how much?’ To which I replied: “The same as everyone else gets to start with.” But he shook his head and said ‘not happy’.

I started to get annoyed but admired his attitude in some ways so offered him another year and said I’d review his progress halfway through. He shook his head again so I counted to ten, showed him the door and told him to think about it.

Apparently he then went to the dressing room and told the senior pros what he’d done. They told him how wrong he’d been and off he went.

A week or two later I got a call from his mother apologising and asking if I would reconsider.

So the next morning she, her husband and a smartly dressed Dennis arrived.

I took them into the boardroom and said the same offer was there for him. His parents were delighted but he still wasn’t happy.

He then went around every other club until, eventually, he was given a contract by Wimbledon.

A few years later, after my nightmare experience at Sunderland - Jimmy Tarbuck once famously compared me to the Titanic (I should never have left Southampton) - I was doing some television work.

They asked me to go to Wimbledon’s training ground to interview the manager Bobby Gould as they’d just reached the 1988 FA Cup final.

The players all knew I was there and about my history with Dennis so they watched as he walked towards me.

He stuck out his hand and said ‘hello boss, how are you keeping?’ at which point Vinnie Jones and the rest of the Crazy Gang shouted ‘chicken’!

I congratulated Dennis on his progress, wished him well and also interviewed him.

Wimbledon of course would ‘do a Saints’ by beating Liverpool against the odds before Dennis was transferred to Chelsea for a record £1.6m in 1990.

He had 11 years there, played nearly 500 games and captained Chelsea to FA and League Cup final wins in successive seasons, before returning to Saints briefly in his late thirties.

That same determination and will to win was evident in the jungle but for some reason he was voted out this week!

It was good to see another ex-Saint in the news this week.

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Nigel Adkins is, would you believe, Hull’s fifth manager in the last 20 months.

He knows the area well having spent time at Scunthorpe.

Hopefully he stays there longer then he did at Southampton.

His move to the KCOM Stadium has coincided with Hull’s City of Culture status coming to the end of its term.

Saints fans will not need reminding he became a victim of Nicola Cortese’s unique culture five years ago, despite leading Saints to back-to-back promotions into the Premiership,.

Cortese’s one man I would have loved to see alongside Dennis in the jungle!