I’ve not finished hunting for glory
NOW 37, ROVERS VETERAN WES BROWN INSISTS...
WES BROWN is the last man standing. The last member of Manchester United’s 1999 Treble-winning squad to still be playing professionally. The last outfield player in English football to have won a Premier League title in the 20th century.
Long after Beckham, Giggs, Scholes and the rest hung up their boots, Brown is still lacing his up and looking forward to getting a game when he can.
So, as the 37-year- old prepares to welcome his old club to Ewood Park in the FA Cup fifth round tomorrow, is it fair to say that this will be the Blackburn Rovers defender’s last season?
‘No!’ says Brown emphatically. ‘I mean, you should ask my knees, but I love it. I will try to play on as long as possible. This is what we all do and people finish for different reasons.
‘I always thought that if you can carry on then you do. I still think I can play. I’m just not as fast as I used to be.’ Would he drop down the divisions? ‘Macclesfield is near me, so…’ What about Sunday league? ‘Yeah, one hundred per cent. I have always said to my mates that as soon as we finish, we will start a Sunday league team.’
Brown is surprised to hear that he is the last survivor from ’99, if you exclude midfielder Jonathan Greening, another who sat on the substitutes’ bench at the Nou Camp, who is playing non-League football with Tadcaster Albion in the Evo-Stik First Division North at the age of 38.
Brown was the youngest member of United’s squad at the Nou Camp on that remarkable May night when Sir Alex Ferguson’s team beat Bayern Munich 2-1 to win the Champions League and complete a unique Treble. Nine years later, he played the full 90 minutes and most of extra time as United defeated Chelsea on penalties to conquer Europe again.
Indeed, he is one of only five Englishmen to win the trophy twice in the Champions League era.
In total, Longsight- born Brown played more than 350 games over 15 years at Old Trafford, also winning five Premier Leagues, two FA Cups and three League Cups before moving to Sunderland.
The trappings of success are there, of course. The Prestbury mansion he shares with wife Leanne, better known for her appearance on The Real House
wives of Cheshire, and their three daughters.
He even has a signed plate on the wall of Wing’s, the Chinese restaurant of choice for Manchester’s football fraternity. ‘Dear Wing,’ it reads. ‘I eat wingers!’
Only now, though, is Brown beginning to appreciate what Ferguson’s team achieved that year, his first full season.
‘You don’t realise it at the time,’ he admits. ‘It was a good starting point for my career. You know what the standards are and they’re set right there — winning is everything when you’re at a club like that.
‘We wanted to win. We started out the season to win. Getting in the Champions League was normal at the time. Maybe it’s become a little bit different now.
‘I was telling some of the young lads here, when you start winning leagues, everyone will get in the dressing room and probably go out. We got to the stage of saying, “Lads I can’t be bothered tonight. I’m going home. I’m tired!”.’
Brown joined Blackburn in September and is likely to be on the bench tomorrow when Owen Coyle’s Championship strugglers attempt to halt United’s progress on at least one of four fronts.
The former England defender sees United rising again under Mourinho. ‘The foundations are still there,’ says Brown. ‘You still have Sir Bobby Charlton about and Sir Alex. When you see them around, you remember what the club is about.
‘It is very much of a family club. Even now, when I phone the club the staff are the still the same, the receptionist is still the same. In that sense, the benchmark is there.
‘It’s taken a good few seasons now and they’re just starting to get the fear back. They’re not an easy team to beat now whereas before they were getting pushed over a little bit.
‘Jose Mourinho has rebuilt with the two big signings in the summer, and I’m sure he will be looking to do the same again at the end of the season.’
So is another treble — FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League — on the cards? ‘They’ve definitely got the quality. Whether the squad is big enough, I’m not sure but the players will start to smell a few trophies now.
‘Ultimately, like we did, if you keep winning and everyone’s playing well and there’s a good team spirit, it just carries on.
‘Eventually you’ve won the league, next thing it’s a cup final, it just keeps ticking. You don’t really have a chance to think about the negative side. You just think, “we can do this”.’