19 February 2023 , 07:00
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Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown angered manager Sir Alex Ferguson with a fight on a bus - but the episode ended up earning him a pay rise.
Brown, an academy graduate, was one of a handful of players in the matchday squad for the Champions League final victories in 1999 and 2008. The Manchester-born star started the 2008 final against Chelsea, one of more than 350 appearances he made for the Red Devils.
After breaking into the first-team as a teenager, the versatile defender was on a relative pittance when it came to weekly wages. This meant he regularly took the bus around town, and Ferguson stepped in after an episode in the late '90s when Brown got into trouble on public transport.
“I turned pro at 17 and started playing at 18, and in that time I still hadn't signed another contract, so I was probably on about £250 a week," Brown told the Football Social Daily podcast, per The Sun. "And then I had a fight on a bus going home because I got the bus everywhere, the 192 into Piccadilly.
"Something happened on the bus and my manager (Ferguson) found out and he said to me, 'what the f*** are you doing on the bus?' I said, 'I've always got the bus, boss', and he's shouting at me for getting a bus and telling me to get a taxi.
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Brown recalls that he then explained he couldn't afford two taxis every day. "He stopped shouting at me after that and he was like, 'yeah, well we'll sort that out'," Brown added. "And that's pretty much how that went. So the actual incident got forgotten about, so I was happy about that.”
What did you make of Ferguson's response? Have your say in the comments section
Wes Brown was part of Manchester United's Champions League-winning squads in 1999 and 2008 (Getty Images)Brown spent more than a decade in and around United's first team, competing with Gary Neville at right-back and a rotating case of centre-back options. He eventually left the club in 2011, joining Sunderland, but injuries hampered his time on Wearside as he made just 76 league appearances in five seasons.
After a short stint with Blackburn, he joined his former England team-mate David James in India. Brown had one season with the Kerala Blasters, managed at the time by former United coach Rene Meulensteen and ex-Liverpool goalkeeper James.
Former United team-mate Neville would later speak of how Brown, four years his junior, impacted his mentality later in his career. However, it was another right-back, Brazil international Rafael, whose emergence was the final straw.
Wes Brown won an impressive five Premier League titles with Manchester United (Getty Images)"I watched Brown play a full season and win the Champions League," the former England international said on The Gary Neville Podcast. "He’s a great lad, brilliant player, and I was delighted for him, [but] of course I wanted to be in the team, of course I wanted to be out there and be captain, but I wasn’t.
"Then Rafael came into training. It was Rafael who actually finished my career mentally, in some ways, because I used to watch him in training, get close to players and snap into tackles, and then get up and get back out there again, and I couldn’t get my legs forward. I thought, 'I get it, I see it'."