Wes Brown played in more games for us last season than any other player, filling in for our injured captain, Gary Neville. Brown is a solid defender, who is better than any other we have at putting the ball and the man in to the stands.

Much fuss was made of his reluctance to sign a new deal, but he was given 100% backing from RoM. He just wanted to be paid fairly for the job he was doing, which meant he shouldn’t be offered a deal worth less than what John O’Shea was on. That is fair enough.

Wes proved he was worth the new deal and has got on with the job. He even has got in to a habit of scoring, starting with his goal against the dippers, a goal for England, as well as scoring against Blackburn last weekend. Who would have thought?

What is most admirable about him though is that he doesn’t complain. He could start for most top half of the table teams in the Premiership, playing his preferred position in the centre, and even could take on a captaincy role, like Phil Neville did after leaving, but he prefers to wear our shirt. He plays wherever, whenever he is asked, and always gives 100% to the team.

After the sad deaths of his father and sister, Wes was eager to play in the next game he could. He didn’t bring the World media to his doorstep, rather got on with the job. He is the kind of player every team should want in their squad and we’re lucky to have him.

Wes has spoken out about his desire to return to the centre of defence after putting in a great performance there against Barcelona.

“I wouldn’t have thought I was settled at right-back for good,” said Wes. “Obviously, with Gary being out I was the main contender for that position. Now Gary’s back, the gaffer can easily change it. If Vida or Rio are out, then he can put me at centre-back. Against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final it was a really tight game and the gaffer put me there hoping I could use a bit of my experience. It turned out well and we got the result we needed.”

He also reflected on last year’s brilliant season.

“Last season for me it was great,” Wes added. “Obviously it was disappointing that Gary got injured, which meant I got the place at right-back. But it was a great season, the team the whole way through the season was flowing and we always thought we were in contention to win trophies. It was a great feeling to be involved in what was a great achievement.”