Wes Brown’s New Contract: Reward Or Ruse? …
Beach holidays and Bentleys are in order for stalwart defender Wes Brown, who on the authority of the Mirror newspaper, has earned himself a new club contract.
“United are offering defender Wes Brown a new three-year deal,” the newspaper trumpeted. “Injuries to Gary Neville and Nemanja Vidic gave him his chance to remind Sir Alex Feguson of his worth. Now United want him to commit because they are afraid he could leave for nothing in a year.”
If true, the offer is good news for Brown after a long period of disappointment and uncertainty. But is the contract offer a reward or a ruse?
Brown made 36 appearances during the season, getting an extended first team run when, one after the other, United players succumbed to the club’s injury curse. By and large, the defender was competent if unspectacular and probably had his best game against Chelsea in the Wembley FA Cup final defeat.
Brown is red through and through and never ceases to declare his love for the club.
“I have been at Manchester United since I was a kid and I always want to be here,” he said earlier this month. “A lot of people have asked me about my future but that was just because I wasn’t playing for a certain stage of the season.
“If you are not getting selected, it is normal for people to start talking. But I just get on with it. I am playing now and everything is fine.”
Such is the defender’s good nature, that he even backs Sir Alex’s decision to relegate him to the substitutes’ bench in favour of the iron pairing of Rio and Vidic.
“You have to play them because they have had such a great season together,” he declared. “They are the backbone of what we have achieved this year and you have to give them credit for that. But it doesn’t affect the way I approach things. I am a Manchester United player and every time I am selected, I will try my heart out.”
Such comments smack of realism to many but also reveal the lack of a killer instinct to others. Shouldn’t Brown be devastated that he cannot get past the regulars?
Brown’s eagerness to remain at United is exemplary and an honest appraisal of life outside the club. Gordon Strachan apart, there are very few players who go on to enjoy good careers when the curtain comes down at the Theatre of Dreams.
Canny Sir Alex has every reason to secure an asset that could walk away next year for nothing but that may not mean that a new contract opens the door to a glorious future. The manager has already guaranteed a squad place to rising star Gerard Pique and must be sorely tempted to take the measure of Johnny Evans’ growing reputation. Both players might be dismayed to find their paths to the first team blocked by Ferdinand, Vidic and Brown, not to mention Heinze, Silvestre Evra and O’Shea.
Much has been written on United’s failure to produce midfielders of note over the past 15 years. Rather less time has been devoted to the obvious point that promising talents were perhaps disuaded from signing for Sir Alex when they looked at the United team sheet adorned by Giggs, Keane, Scholes and Beckham and wondered if they would ever get a game. The manager must balance the reliability of experienced pros, with the enthusiasm, potential and durability of the young. Sir Alex declared months ago his intention to take the old out of Old Trafford. With rejuvenation an obvious requirement, the advantage is firmly with youth.
Brown, at nearly 28, is an England international. He has now attained a level of fitness and an understanding of the game that would make him a starter at most clubs.
If he accepts the new contract, Brown faces another season watching from the sidelines or filling in as deputy to established stars.
Last summer, Mikael Silvestre signed a new deal with United and is now further away from the first team than ever. What price Brown sharing the same fate?
READ: Sir Alex’s Dash For Youth
READ: Wes Brown’s Blues
