Ben Nelson

[The whole world smiles]

Seen A few people naming him in their side for Saturday and with injuries to Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu and Amartey and Ndidi away and Benekovic perpetually out of favour its not unrealistic that we see him in the first team in January. 

 

Obviously I know he's a 17 year old center back, who won academy player of the season last year and has been in a few European and recent Premier league squads. But other than that I know very little about him. 

 

Can anyone who regularly watches the under 23s and youth sides give us the lowdown on him? Strengths/weakness? How close is he to a successful step up? 

Edited 3 January 2022 by The whole world smiles

[sacreblueits442]

....if we have to play him, it would have to be a cup game, have not had the chance to watch him on a regular basis!!!

He does show as a young CB, makes errors of judgment and is (for me) not ready for the next step up. Genuine player learning his craft, recovers well aerially sound but his physicality, especially in his position is a problem.

[Lambert09]

1 hour ago, The whole world smiles said:

Seen A few people naming him in their side for Saturday and with injuries to Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu and Amartey and Ndidi away and Benekovic perpetually out of favour its not unrealistic that we see him in the first team in January. 

 

Obviously I know he's a 17 year old center back, who won academy player of the season last year and has been in a few European and recent Premier league squads. But other than that I know very little about him. 

 

Can anyone who regularly watches the under 23s and youth sides give us the lowdown on him? Strengths/weakness? How close is he to a successful step up? 

I think the feeling was that he was/ is going to be the next star from the academy. Usually we loan these players out for a year or 2 so essentially he’s likely to still be a fair way off. 
 

Just in preseason you could sort of see. He looked comfortable against the lower league sides but against Villarreal he really struggled. I think we’d be wrong to throw him in the league, but we might not have a choice. 

[Fox on the Rox]

10 hours ago, The whole world smiles said:

Seen A few people naming him in their side for Saturday and with injuries to Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu and Amartey and Ndidi away and Benekovic perpetually out of favour its not unrealistic that we see him in the first team in January. 

 

Obviously I know he's a 17 year old center back, who won academy player of the season last year and has been in a few European and recent Premier league squads. But other than that I know very little about him. 

 

Can anyone who regularly watches the under 23s and youth sides give us the lowdown on him? Strengths/weakness? How close is he to a successful step up? 

There's a thread here you might find interesting though it's not been active for a while

 

[RowlattsFox]

Hopefully we can get enough players back before the end of January to allow him to go out on loan for rest of the season, see what he is all about. Hopefully get an opportunity this Saturday but I'm not convinced he will, not from the start anyway. 

[StriderHiryu]

He'll end up playing some part this season even if just in cameo roles, but really it's far too early for him. Players can and often do make their debuts when quite young but he needs time to develop both physically and mentally. I think the club were waiting for him to get to 18 years old before loaning him out for the entire season to League One, maybe the Championship. 

 

I fully expect this guy to be a big success story for our production line of talent and expect him ultimately to have the same level of impact that Chilwell, Barnes and now KDH have had. But that could be 4-5 years from now when that happens.

 

Fofana was playing at 18 in the Saint-Etienne first team, but was more developed physically than Nelson. He is tall but not muscular. Barnes when he first came back from WBA looked a bit physically weak but bulked up a lot to get to his current level. Nelson will probably need to the same.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

He needs to bring the protein shakes first from what I remember seeing of him. Very big ask for a 17 year old lad to come into our first team.

[Foxxed]

I'm not expecting a 17 year old to suddenly become a first teamer. Ten minutes here and there would do me. Any experience should be good for his development and get him a loan (Thomas didn't need one, of course). However, the injury crisis may demand he play a bigger part.

[ScrumpyJack]

Any idea how he is getting on? A bit concerned about him at Rochdale. Would’ve been good if he could have got to Mansfield, some players with decent experience there.

[Foxxed]

Constantly great ratings despite the results. Good experience, I’d say

[ScrumpyJack]

3 minutes ago, ScrumpyJack said:

Any idea how he is getting on? A bit concerned about him at Rochdale. Would’ve been good if he could have got to Mansfield, some players with decent experience there.

Quick update, Rochdale are bottom of League 2 

 

 

Desperate search for a silver lining continues