Wes Brown has revealed a trick that his former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson used when he was subject to transfer bids from other teams.
Brown played for United between 1992 and 2011, coming through the youth system at the club.
He then spent five years at Sunderland, before ending his professional career with spells at Blackburn Rovers and Indian Super League side Kerala Blasters.
The centre-back, who made over 200 appearances under Ferguson, has explained the United boss used a tactic to try to avoid any distraction for him when another team put in a bid.
Speaking to Ladbrokes, Brown said (quotes via Daily Star): “Sir Alex Ferguson came up to me a few times throughout my career and told me there had been bids for me.
“I always used to ask him who the clubs were, but he never used to tell me.
“He’d never tell me, I was always like, ‘oh, cheers boss’.
“I know it’s all different now but that was my experience.
“He knew it didn’t really bother me because I never wanted to be anywhere else, so we probably had a different sort of relationship in that respect.
“I later found out one of the clubs early on in my career was Lazio, but he never told me about any of the English clubs.”
Brown’s United career in numbers
Brown achieved incredible success as part of the United squad, lifting the Champions League trophy on two occasions in 1999 and 2008. He also won five Premier League titles and two FA Cups.
He made 36 league appearances in the Premier League in 2007/08, and a further 10 in European competition, as United completed a domestic and continental treble.
The centre-back played the full 120 minutes in the 2008 Champions League final against Chelsea. He was substituted for Anderson shortly before the penalty shootout took place.
Upon his departure for Sunderland three years later, Ferguson called him “one of his generation’s most natural defenders“.
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