Dennis Wise is regarded as one of the best British footballers to ever play in the Premier League for Chelsea. Despite standing at just 5 ft 6 in, the former Chelsea midfielder was also one of the hardest-hitting, fiercest players in the game during his career. There was seemingly no one he was afraid to butt heads with.
The Englishman played 440 times for Chelsea, over the course of 11 years, with 261 of those games coming in the Premier League. He was sold in 2001 to Leicester City, who he represented in the English top flight a further 17 times. Throughout his 20-year playing career, he came across some of the toughest men that the sport had to offer and while he's considered one of those hardest himself, he had no problem revealing the six stars he played against who he thought were the toughest.
During an interview with Daily Mail, he named the hardest footballers he'd ever faced off against, but surprisingly snubbed Vinnie Jones, notoriously one of the fiercest men to ever step onto a football pitch.
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He included a former Chelsea teammate
Roy Keane
While Wise didn't include Jones, he named six of the toughest men to ever play in the Premier League. The former midfielder listed off Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Patrick Vieira, Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Mark Hughes as the hardest players. He eventually played with Hughes at Chelsea. Speaking to Daily Mail, he said:
"You had your Roy Keanes, Nicky Butts, Patrick Vieiras. I came up against all of them. They had real bite between their teeth. They were real characters, real tough. Tony Adams. Martin Keown. That Arsenal team we came up against were a tough group of boys and so were Manchester United at the time. They were tough.
"Mark Hughes, when he came to Chelsea, wow. You realised what he was about, how strong he is, how focused, how single-minded these people are."
The likes of Keane, Vieira, Adams and Keown all built reputations for their tough nature and fierce approach to football. They never shied away from battles on the pitch and there won't be many fans who disagree with Wise's decision to name those players.
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt and accurate as of 20/05/2025