AFC Wimbledon: Transfer committee had Portsmouth FC to thank for perfectly timed deal | OneFootball

Lee Brown's arrival in 2022 may not have entirely helped out at the time, but it did turn out to be a perfectly timed deal further down the line

The 2021/22 season was a campaign for fans of AFC Wimbledon that started with extreme promise, and ended in agonising heartache.

For the first time in the club's short history, they were relegated, despite a promising start to life under Mark Robinson and his young, talented squad.

However, for all the youthful exuberance in that squad, a lot of which has since gone to pastures new, there was one signing that arrived at the perfect time for the Dons, and despite not being able to arrest the relegation, he was able to fulfill the words of his manager upon signing, and play a big role later on down the line.

Lee Brown signs

Experienced and well-travelled defender joins the Dons

When the then 31-year-old Brown joined up with the Dons, midway through the 21/22 season, it was a bit of a puzzling signing from an on-pitch standpoint. The Dons had Nesta Guinness-Walker and Paul Osew, two young, pacey, attack-minded full-backs already on the books, who were found searching defensively at times, but had years ahead of them to learn that part of their game, and were arguably seen as the future of the left-hand side.

However, the former Bristol Rovers man was exactly who then-manager, and former Burton Albion boss, Mark Robinson was chasing, following a less than ideal January transfer window which had seen the departure of Ollie Palmer to Wrexham.

Speaking to the club's media team upon completing his capture of the left-back, Robinson said: "I’m really pleased, I think Lee is going to be an important signing for us.

"After we lost Ollie, the recruitment panel asked if we needed a bit of experience for the squad.

"We’re looking for a forward option as well, but with the money from Ollie’s transfer we needed a bit of experience in a key area, and I felt that Lee would be the right man.

"After hearing he was available I spent two or three hours with Lee, I think he’s absolutely the right person.

"I think he’s absolutely the right person."

Lee Brown was a rare success for AFC Wimbledon's transfer committee

The infamous transfer committee is something of a light-hearted laugh that Wimbledon fans can look back on from the Robinson times. However, for all their failures, which included poorly selected incomings and horrendously timed outgoings, such as Ollie Palmer, their move to pick out and sign Lee Brown was like striking gold in a barren mine.

As said, on the pitch it didn't make much sense for the club to sign up yet another left-sided defender. But it was Browny's, as he was affectionately known at the club, experience and character in the dressing room which was the main selling-point.

He was walking into a club that had just lost a big character and presence, figuratively and literally, in Palmer, and was needing someone who was able to step into those shoes and make a seamless impact.

That type of impact was especially needed with such a young squad on the teetering edge of becoming the whipping boys of the league, and a side that would not be able to prevent any run of poor form and a nosedive of morale.

And while he did not prevent the loss of form and the eventual relegation to League Two, as no one really expected him to as a one-man-band, he did at least bring a bit of character and fun back to the pitch during a tough time.

His no-nonsense yet jokey approach to everything he did was perfect for the fans having to watch the drab football on display, and when things started to get better in the seasons following, so did Brown and his impact on the team, and proved that even though the transfer committee was not the best thing to happen to AFC Wimbledon, the signing of the Farnborough-born left-back certainly was in recent times.

The legacy Lee Brown left at Wimbledon

Well, with no promotions and one relegation, you'd be forgiven if you thought that he did not really leave a legacy and a lasting impact at the club, but most Wimbledon fans would argue the complete opposite.

He did the exact job he was brought in to do, and as a footballer, that really is all you can do to try and win over fans. He became a figurehead, gave his all on the pitch, slotted into positions that were not his natural, and off the pitch, from what fans could see, he added character and fun to a dressing room that was rebuilding itself.

Diving deeper into some of them, his versatility in recent times is something that should certainly stick with fans. Before stepping away from football in the summer, Browny had been tasked with slotting into the left of a makeshift back three during an injury crisis that took out first choice centre-backs Joe Lewis and Ryan Johnson. He made the position his own and made fans start pondering if he would be able to keep a returning Johnson out of the team.

His role as a figurehead too must have surely rubbed off on Jack Currie, who came through and stole Brown's spot in the team at left-back only six months after he arrived from Portsmouth. While the ins-and-outs are widely unknown, there must be some degree of truth to the guess that a lot of what Currie learned and gained in ability was from Browny himself in the time they were training together.

However, his crowning glory, and the reason why he may never be forgotten in Wimbledon history, was obviously his performance and THAT assist for THAT Ronan Curtis goal against Milton Keynes.

His darting run, brilliant touch and almost inch-perfect cross are some of the most well-remembered seconds of football from recent times for most Wimbledon fans, and certainly a moment that will give him a legacy to hold onto.

He does, of course, hold ties to the club thanks to family members being fans of the club, and the now 34-year-old did say he would be attending games here and there in his departing statement in the summer.

But to boil it all back down again, none of this would have been possible if it were not for the fact that the transfer committee had to find experience on the cheap, and had Portsmouth to thank for turfing out an older squad player, who was being pushed further down the order at Fratton Park.