Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown has recalled the fallout from a fight on a bus that led to his biggest telling-off from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Brown broke into the first team as an 18-year-old in 1998, going on to make 362 appearances for his boyhood club over a period of 14 years. The versatile defender was a key part of Sir Alex Ferguson's relentless success that followed the 1999 Treble-winning campaign, filling in a right-back and centre-back.
Having spent more than a decade under the United legend in M16, Brown will have seen more than his fair share of furious outbursts towards others. And looking back on his time at Old Trafford, the defender had to go all the way back to his early years as a professional to recall his own biggest grilling from the Scot.
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“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. "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.
"I explained to him that I couldn't afford a taxi because that would be £14 a day, £7 from my house to Salford. Still living with my mum and I need to give her some money and buying snide Ralph Laurens to go out!
"He stopped shouting at me after that. And he was like 'yeah, well we'll sort that out'. And that's pretty much how that went. So the actual incident got forgotten about so I was happy about that.”
A part of the United side during their two most famous European nights in 1999 and 2008, Brown is one of a few in Manchester to hold two Champions League winners' medals, and the 43-year-old knows which of the two sides was better.
"People ask me which was the best one and I would still say 1999, just for the simple fact that the squad, the rules were a little bit different with subs and stuff and there was a lot of games that season, but the lads just kept battling on and obviously had a little bit of luck along the way.
"But I always feel, to actually do the Treble, it's not an easy thing to do. In 2008 I was more of a senior figure, so I would play more games and play in them late stages but it was a great experience and just to be involved and see it all unroll.”
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