One-time Blues loanee Reece Brown has lifted the lid on his brief time at Town, revealing that the Blues offered him a contract as his time with parent club Manchester United came to an end with a later move to AFC Bournemouth lined up with then-Cherries boss Eddie Howe.

Brown, now 30 and coaching youngsters at Morecambe and Oldham having hung up his boots after an underwhelming career given his England caps at U19 and U20 levels as a youngster at Old Trafford, was on loan with the Blues from February 2013 until the end of that season, Mick McCarthy’s first campaign in charge at Portman Road.

The centre-half made only one sub appearance in the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in which Town were reduced to nine men following the dismissals of Lee Martin and Richard Stearman.

In a brutally frank account of his playing career on the Red Devils’ official website, Brown, the brother of former England international Wes, recounts his time with the Blues.

“At the end of that season, I went out again, this time to Ipswich,” he recalls. “I hardly played. They had two centre-backs with something like 900 league appearances between them [Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers], so I was never going to play, but what they want from a young lad in that situation is maturity.

“My ego was telling me that I was a Man United player. They played me in a reserve game and I’ve got a picture of it in my phone which I still laugh at. I’m wearing tights and gloves, thinking I looked the part. Mick McCarthy went mental at me afterwards.

“Last day of that season, I went to the PFA awards. We were told we had a day off the following day, so we went out and enjoyed ourselves.

“Then, 11pm that night, we were told be at the training ground for 9am the following morning. That was a little bit too late for me to save myself. I ended up getting there at 5.30pm.

“McCarthy rang the gaffer [Sir Alex Ferguson] the next day in front of me and the gaffer told him to fine me. The biggest punishment was that I didn’t get to play in the last game of the season, which I had been due to start.”

Even so, as TWTD reported at the time, the Blues were keen to keep Brown at Portman Road and says a future deal had been pencilled in with AFC Bournemouth.

“Despite all that, Ipswich offered me a three-year deal,” he continued. “Despite the fact that my contract with United was almost up, I turned it down because I just hadn’t enjoyed my time there.

“A few years later, I saw Mick again and he explained what the plan was (this bit kills me). He asked me: ‘What happened to Tyrone Mings?’. ‘What do you mean?’. ‘Where did he go?’. ‘Bournemouth’.
‘That would have been you.’

“I knew that Eddie Howe liked both me and Josh King when we were younger. He used to come and watch us in the reserves. It turned out the plan was for me to go to Ipswich, play a season of football and then join Bournemouth in the Premier League. Instead, I turned it down, Tyrone Mings played instead and joined Bournemouth for £8 million.”

Now-England centre-half Mings had joined the Blues from non-league Chippenham earlier that season and went on to move to the Cherries, by then in the Premier League, in the summer of 2015.

Brown added: “A few years later, I had a chat with Eddie about it. First thing he said: ’What happened?’. I had no answers. ‘You had everything. I’ve always wanted to coach you, but you never had that spark to take it seriously.’ There’s the younger me in a nutshell, I guess.”

Photo: ITFC

slade1 added 11:01 - Apr 11 To be honest, I don't even remember him. Looks like he thinks he was bigger and better than he actually was
2

MickMillsTash added 11:09 - Apr 11 Great story- for many of us who balls up in life there is always another job or ....divorce. From memory we nearly avoided defeat in that Forest game, February foggy night and maybe Chopra could have scored, Lansbury a tw@t ? Forest away seems like a massive game nowadays.
6

terryball2012 added 11:48 - Apr 11 Sums up all that is wrong with young footballers these days.
2

Plums added 13:06 - Apr 11 Brutally honest and a lesson to us all. He made one appearance but those of us who were there couldn't see him because of the fog!
2

fifeblue added 13:18 - Apr 11 Credit to him for being honest.
4

Monkey_Blue added 14:23 - Apr 11 So he has basically explained why he didn't make it and that he thought he was too big for Town.
2

USA added 14:54 - Apr 11 Insane that we offered him a 3 year contract based on 1 sub appearance!! Awful club management all round.
-1

Linkboy13 added 15:52 - Apr 11 Too many of these youngsters come from big clubs with big egos. Louie Barry is a classic case from Aston Villa who thought he could go straight into the team without really putting any effort in. Im not really sure the academy system is a good idea for youngsters less than one percent actually make the grade and end up heart broken when they are told they are no longer wanted and even drift out of the game altogether. Even if we find a player with outstanding ability they get taken by the big clubs. My advice to any youngster would be get a career and play at a good non league level it didn't do Jamie Vardy or Stewart Pearse and many more any harm.

2

Len_Brennan added 16:07 - Apr 11 It's a cautionary tale for young footballers (young people in general I guess) who think they are special before they have proven it, consistently, at a high level. But what I took from the story is that, under Mick McCarthy, we were a feeder club for Bournemouth, who weren't exactly a big club themselves. Something seems really off about "the plan", first for Brown & ultimately for Mings. Surely you buy a player in the hope that they are successful for your club, and if so will get the interest of clubs higher up the league; at which point you seek out the best deal available for your club. The idea that we were going to sign a player l, on a 3 year deal, with an agreement to sell him one after one year already in place, seems very odd to me. Don't get me wrong, £8m was a massive fee for Mings; I just find "the plan" baffling. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, or missing something?

5

DoseOfReality added 16:41 - Apr 11 Who cares 🤷‍♂️
1

ButchersBrokenNose added 17:53 - Apr 11 Len: I'm in agreement with you. Why would you have this complex "plan" and not tell the player? It would seem like the only way to motivate him or at least get his compliance, neither of which happened here. This sounds like Brown crying in his beer and telling stories. "I could've been a contender..."
1

Bluespeed added 18:04 - Apr 11 Len, you have hit a massive nail on the head ! All this development crap is nonsense these days, all any lower league club does is con the die hard fans about a player's potential then pretend that a fantastic offer has come in 15 months down the road knowing all along that a multi million deal was in place ! It's a joke & maybe KMC won't buy into the sham & told Dyer a few home truths ?

1

Cloddyseedbed added 18:48 - Apr 11 Reece Who?
0

ArnieM added 22:01 - Apr 11 Who??
0

Edmundo added 22:50 - Apr 11 Total cr@p about Bournemouth lined up. They went up 2 (not 1) seasons later, virtually at our expense as we imploded post Christmas. What if we had gone up, and not them? Sorry, total ballcocks.
0

bobble added 08:42 - Apr 12 staring a the wallpaper is more interesting than this mindless waffle....
1

JewellintheTown added 13:00 - Apr 12 From a business and not a fans point of view, moving Brown (or Mings) on was the only way at the time that McCarthy could drum up any half decent funds to buy more players, so I for one don't begrudge him doing so. Telling the player might have made his ego even worse and he dropped his head and it all go south. We're then stuck with him. Hasn't done Mings any harm not knowing - assuming what Brown has said is actually all true. Not a McCarthy fan boy but can see the logic. Fortunately different times now though with the re-birth of our club.

1

Nobbysnuts added 13:09 - Apr 12 Yet another pointless story.......
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Radlett_blue added 13:51 - Apr 12 Brown (brother of Wes) was still highly enough rated for Watford to give a him a 2 year deal at the end of the 2012-13 season. He only played 1 game there, was shipped out to Carlisle on loan & then sold to Barnsley. Drifted around the lower leagues for a few more years & that was it. Happens to a lot of talented young players who don't have the application & desire.

1

atty added 15:18 - Apr 12 Who?
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