It’s human nature to blame everyone else for your own mistakes, isn’t that right Dennis Wise. Luckily, Rob Elliot puts him in his place.
Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot has laughed off controversial claims from Dennis Wise that the club’s notoriously passionate fanbase have a problem with ‘Southeners’, according to the Chronicle.
Former director of football Wise was the subject of intense criticism during his time at St James Park, with fans understandably displeased with his array of transfer flops, including £5.7 million, one goal Spaniard Xisco (Sky Sports), which consequently led to the departure of an undermined Kevin Keegan (below) and paved the way for a humiliating relegation in 2009.
However, in an interview with beIN Sports, the former Millwall enforcer suggested the difficulties faced by himself and fellow Londoner Alan Pardew at Newcastle were the result of the fans’ geographical prejudice rather than his own incompetence.
“We were the Cockney Mafia,” quipped Wise, as reported by the Chronicle. “Once you get past Watford Gap there’s a problem.”
However, Greenwich-born goalkeeper Elliot has emphatically refuted those claims, saying that the genial nature of the Newcastle locals helped him fall in love with the North East immediately upon his arrival from Charlton in 2011.
“The biggest thing going for it is the people,” the Republic of Ireland international, currently sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, told the Chronicle.
“Since day one they have welcomed us and they are so friendly. It’s nice to live somewhere that people are really proud of where they are from.
“You don’t grasp that until you are up here, people are genuinely proud of where they live and you don’t get that where I’m from all the time.
“It’s brilliant and a fantastic place to live. I feel I am at a place where I want to be.”
On reflection, it’s almost as if Wise was attempting to cowardly pass the buck and shift the blame for his own failings.
After all, Rob Lee, Glenn Roeder and Les Ferdinand (below) weren’t born and bred Geordies and they did alright. All in all, your comments weren’t very Wise, Dennis.
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