Brown’s boys up against it
SOME players go off to China or the USA to end their careers but Wes Brown will be happy to wind up on the muddy Sunday League pitches around Manchester.
Tomorrow’s tie against his former club Manchester United may prove his last big hurrah but the Blackburn defender, 37, is not quitting yet.
He has won two Champions League medals and is the last of Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1999 Treble winners still earning a living as a professional player.
Yet he is quite prepared to form his own amateur team to extend his career until his knees pack up.
Brown said: “Is it my final season? Ask my knees! I still love it. I’ll try and play as long as possible.
“I always thought if you can carry on, then do. I still think I can play but I’m not as fast.
“I didn’t realise I was the last of the ’99 squad still playing but, yeah, I’m prepared to play Sunday league – 100 per cent. I’ve always said with my mates that as soon as we finish, we’ll start a Sunday league team.
“What would we call it? Brown’s Boys? Yeah!” When his legs do pack up, Brown is looking to coach or manage. “I’m doing the [coaching] badges and seeing how it goes,” he said. Brown is likely to be on the bench tomorrow but is still looking forward to getting a close-up view of a club he joined at the age of 12 and spent two decades with – all under the tutelage of Sir Alex – until he moved to Sunderland for a five-year spell in 2011 that ended last summer with his move to Blackburn.
After three years of transition following Ferguson’s retirement, the former England defender believes United have rediscovered their identity and winning mentality.
“They’re just starting to get that ‘fear’ back,” he said. “They’re not an easy team to beat now, whereas before they were getting pushed over a bit.”
If the Premier League title is out of reach, the current United team can complete a Treble of their own by winning the League Cup, FA Cup and Europa.
A congested fixture list will be a problem but Brown said: “Like we did in ’99, if you keep winning there’s a good team spirit and it just carries on.
“You don’t really have a chance to think about tiredness or any negatives, you just think, ‘we can do this’.”
Blackburn’s priority is to stay in the Championship, so Brown can enjoy tomorrow whatever the outcome.