Fox on the Rox

Seriously though, have you read the rest of this thread? For example, you don't have to go back far to see positive quotes from Gary Rowett who actually picked him every week in the Championship.

Yes

Fotmob isn't always accurate. He's training as usual in the social media videos.

He's not. I know it seems the only feasible explanation but, despite what you might see on the internet, he's not. The club hasn't said he's injured. He's in the background on the training videos taking part like all the other fit players.

Don't know about that, but I'm sure he does now!

Trouble is it's not just up to us. He's got to want to extend and why would he unless things change pretty dramatically?

I've just posted a couple of YouTube links on his thread, shows a bit more than we've been able to see this season.

I've seen a few comments that people haven't seen much of Nelson, and they're judging him on the one game against Huddersfield. Thought I'd see what's out there. There's a couple of compilations on YouTube from when there was rumours of Chelsea interest. Couple of minutes of Oxford highlights - shows he can make a block, play out from the back and pull off a cross pitch pass https://youtu.be/vS5C-uN6A84 Longer one including some Doncaster and Leicester stuff too https://youtu.be/V-3uwy2dpYo?si=VYoNLLkKsf9glZJ- This was a bit of fun with the cricket guys - embarrassed Coady in the cross bar challenge https://youtu.be/WH9KL0D_O58?si=ycXPR-ZYN1RESiOw

He's shown his resilience and commitment in getting back from the ACL. Hopefully the foot injury will be something he recovers from quickly and he can get on with his season.

I think @Gamble92 nails it in those first two sentences. Can't blame managers for taking a short term view with our recent history, and there's a lack of strategic direction from the top. Whatever we all think of Rudkin he's not stupid, he will be very aware of the contract situation with Nelson but he seems to be putting his head in the sand and hoping things will just work out somehow.

Not sure about that. He was in all the predicted line ups I saw ahead of the game.

Totally agree. I can see it happening though.

Yeah but where? Are we gonna loan him to a Championship side? Would we let him go to Europe? I can see Rudkin not wanting to let him out on loan at all whilst he's not signed a new contract, and he's unlikely to sign if we're not letting him get game time - stalemate!

Yep. How the club have developed the careers of Alves, Nelson and Braybrooke won't be providing much inspiration for the next crop. It's almost as if the club don't have the confidence in those young players to play them, but don't want any other clubs to have the opportunity to either. As a young player you are kind of trapped unless you're a generational talent that's attracting serious interest at 15 or 16 years old. If you don't sign a contract then the threat is that club won't play you or even have you around the first team, and they certainly won't allow you out on loan. So you have to sign if you want to progress. But then if they don't allow you to develop, there's nothing you can do as you're under contract. You can't leave and you can't force the club to loan you out. Look at how last minute most of the young players' loans are. Alves didn't even manage to get out on loan till Jan last season, it was all so last minute. It's a real issue for young players. What other job is there that you can't leave even if there are other employers who want you? I can see this having to change in future, it's restricting freedom of employment.

Not sure what point you're making here. Is it that Marti is right to trust other young players but not Nelson? Let's hope he's still here if/when the time comes that he is needed.

Yep. He's not carrying a knock despite what people keep saying. I don't know where that idea came from. He probably didn't play for England u21s because he's only played 90 minutes of competitive football since he left Oxford at the end of last season. Anyone who judges him on a dodgy first half against Huddersfield needs to apply the same standards to our other players and shows they've not watched him play every week for a manager, team and fan base who value him. We're neglecting a major asset. Never mind Wout having to leave if he wants to play for his country, Nelson does too. I wouldn't blame his agent if he'd already started letting it be known that he'd be open to a permanent move in January. I believe there were already suitors this summer. The way we're treating him there are only going to be more. It's very strange.

This. Confirmed by Marti in his post match interview. Nelson not carrying a knock or anything.

Been there, seen that, done it at Oxford, they loved him and played him 90 minutes every game he was available. There's only so long we can leave him hanging. He probably will go on loan in January if he's not playing but if we think he's going to be signing a new contract when he's not in the starting 11 every week we're deluded. So he potentially walks in 2027. We'll get compensation anyway because he's an academy product. If he goes abroad though, that'll be significantly less than £1M, and whoever he goes to will be laughing all the way to the bank because they'll be sitting on a £30-40M profit at our expense!

And how does he become that? By watching and learning from the bench?

Good point re only two years left on his contract. If we don't play him I can see him leaving. We'd normally be expecting him to re-sign this season. There's no way he's doing that if we don't give him proper minutes. I'm sure there was plenty of interest in loaning him this season after his performance at Oxford and there would be plenty of interest in signing him permanently. He's with Wasserman too I think, they're not likely to leave him languishing.

But seriously, I just had a look on the Oxford fan forum and they're still talking about him, really positively. Would love to get him back and even crediting him with keeping them up last season. There's clearly more there than was on show against Huddersfield. Lee Carsley obviously thinks so too.

Is that you Jannik? 😀

After all, it is the 'Ben Nelson derby'.

But how do we get there if Nelson can't get a game?

Over on their fan forum they clearly rate him highly and keep hoping they can get him back, either by us selling him to Chelsea and them loaning him out to them, or by making us an offer as we're not playing him. Fortunately for us they don't seem to have much of a budget (magic beans were mentioned).