Former Sunderland defender Wes Brown claims he could have stayed at Manchester United but a desire to play football lead to him signing for Steve Bruce's Black Cats. The England international penned a four-year deal with the Wearsiders in July 2011.
Despite injury problems throughout his career, the arrival of Brown and John O'Shea at the Stadium of Light was seen as quite the coup for Bruce, who had guided Sunderland to a top half finish the season prior. Brown made quite the impact, winning man-of-the-match on his Black Cats debut - a 1-1 draw with Liverpool. However, injury problems would plague his career on Wearside, a knee injury which he sustained later that season in an FA Cup clash with Middlesbrough ruled him out for well over a year.
ChronicleLive spoke with the former England defender at the BT Hope United x Cybersmile event at North Shields FC, a programme run in conjunction with The FA to promote a new portal designed to tackle online hate.
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"To be fair I could have stayed at Manchester United but I had a good chat with Sir Alex Ferguson and I wasn't going to play as much," Brown said. "We'd just bought Chris Smalling and we had Rafael and Fabio, the twins, who were going to make more appearances.
"He [Sir Alex] said 'Listen you can stay, but you probably won't play as much.' It just got to the point where it was hard leaving but I wanted to play. The was a connection with Steve Bruce [at Sunderland], and there were a few other United players there.
"Me and John O'Shea got the call to say he wanted us to join and it was pretty easy after that if I'm being quite honest. As you know, my time there - probably not the first season - was very difficult, but it was a great experience I do have to say.
"I was very used to the other side of things and always challenging for trophies. This was a different experience and one which I wish the club wasn't in, but it was an experience I loved dealing with to be fair."
The Black Cats endured a difficult start to the season and flirted with the relegation zone before Steve Bruce was replaced by Martin O'Neill. The Northern Irish boss transformed Sunderland's fortunes and it looked as though they were on course for a second consecutive top-half finish.
"The squad when I first signed was pretty decent," Brown said. "We had some very experienced players there and I think we finished 13th which probably didn't reflect how we played. I think we dropped off near the end, knowing that you're out of trouble which isn't ideal.
"After that it did get difficult. I got injured a few times as well. My knees were the problem and they always have been. I hurt my knee [against Boro] and it took so long to recover.
"As you're getting older you're thinking 'How long is this going to be?' It doesn't help the fact that I understood we went there to play. We wanted to do well for Sunderland. The fans were brilliant and the club was. I enjoyed every minute of my five years there."
Sunderland's recent plight in League One needs no elaboration, but Brown believes the play-offs are within touching distance and admits he still keeps a close eye out for results. He said: "It's been difficult in recent seasons. They're my team and I still look for every result. They can still get in the play-offs now but it'll be hard.
"At the end of the day, you can ask anyone, they're a club that should not be where they are it's as simple as that. For unfortunate reason's that's where they are. I think this season there's been a few more brighter occasions in a sense, they've gone on some good runs.
"I think it's the play-offs and see what happens from there. They've always been a big club, a community club. The fans still go every week even though sometimes we were rubbish! That's what it's about and it's a shame they're not competing."
Since retiring from football, Brown has held a number of ambassadorial roles and is currently an ambassador for BT’s new educational platform, created in partnership with the Home Nations FAs and Cybersmile. The non-profit organisation has made an online education platform for young people designed to help tackle online hate, bullying and abuse.
"Ever since the programme launched it was something that I wanted to get involved with," he said. "You get asked lots of questions in general and playing at Sunderland to come back up this way it was nice to chat with the kids and see how they feel. I know what they've done in the workshops has been really good.
"It makes them aware of different circumstances that can surround it [online abuse]. Sometimes you don't necessarily know it could be happening, people might think it's banter but for that specific individual it can cause a lot of harm, in some cases, very serious harm - being very young and you have to make everyone aware.
"I don't think you'll stop it 100 per cent [social media abuse] but at the same time you stop and think about the damage it's causing that individual in particular. I can imagine being young and you might not even know you're doing it.
"Social media is worldwide and especially children, they can take it very badly. There's loads of kids here and it makes them aware, that if it does happen to them [online abuse] they can always speak to people, which I think as children you take it into account and it definitely helps.
"I was lucky we just had mobiles when I started and I think Twitter was the first thing to come out. I remember Rio [Ferdinand] getting it and that was probably the first time we experienced it. By then, you're very thick skinned and it doesn't really effect you, but if that was happening when I was a kid - it's not just Twitter there's all sorts now."
A recent example of social media being used for the wrong reasons, was the abhorrent racial abuse aimed towards Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in the wake of England's Euro 2020 final defeat. 11 people were arrested as a result of the online abuse.
"Things do get said and it's shown in the professional game. We had a great European Championship and then lots of things were said afterwards. We're talking about grown ups now but if that were to happen with kids it could be even worse.
"People in the professional game know how to handle it, they talk about it and there's consequences. That's all you can hope for in that sense. Kids growing up are the next generation and if they learn early then they understand the positives rather than the negatives of social media."
Online passports were among the suggestions put forward in the wake of the racist abuse at Euro 2020, but that comes with it's own problems. Brown said: "That's hard to do. Don't get me wrong, it's a very grey area in what rules are.
"When people are getting racially abused and things are being said about families and kids, that has to be looked at and ways to sort it out. Social media can be used very positively but there's circumstances where things are said very unnecessary.
"I know the professionals today are big on it as well, the abuse they get just for football. They try and help in every single way."
Click here to access BT and Cybersmile’s modules.
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