Ben Nelson - loan to Oxford United - Official

[Stadt]

Culturally we’re just bad at giving 18 year olds minutes. Rudkin is the academy director and DoF, he couldn’t be any more influential or culpable.

 

We rely on a successful loan period before giving players a chance, which is fine and if has merit in it but we’re abysmal at sorting loans.

 

After Schlupp, Chilwell, Barnes, Thomas, KDH’s development lower league club’s should be banging on the door for our loanees.

[James_lcfc]

Faes and Vestergaard will be the starting partnership next year - Nelson will be behind Coady and Okoli in the pecking order.

 

I'm convinced we will never see the back of some of these players - They are here forever.

[honeybradger]

The fact that he's 21 and only has 6 appearances for us is really really shocking from the club. I say 'shocking' but it's expected at this point, the club seem set on not giving him a chance, rather bring in a new centreback every summer ie. Coady, Okoli and resign Vestergaard for 3 years.

 

[Tomo260]

In my head, added with realistic expectations..

 

We should sell off Faes, Souttar, Vestergaard.

 

Keep Coady, Okoli and Nelson, use those 3 in rotation 

[Fox92]

He should be in our starting team for the first game of next season.

 

Pleased for him at the minute. Oxford have had a turn a round since Rowett joined so nice to see him speak of Nelson so highly.

[Stadt]

31 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

The fact that he's 21 and only has 6 appearances for us is really really shocking from the club. I say 'shocking' but it's expected at this point, the club seem set on not giving him a chance, rather bring in a new centreback every summer ie. Coady, Okoli and resign Vestergaard for 3 years.

 

There genuinely is zero forward planning in transfer dealings and contract extensions. The Vestergaard extension was completely ridiculous, I bet players and their agents genuinely laugh after they sign the deal. 

[dannythefox]

57 minutes ago, James_lcfc said:

Faes and Vestergaard will be the starting partnership next year - Nelson will be behind Coady and Okoli in the pecking order.

 

I'm convinced we will never see the back of some of these players - They are here forever.

Faes won’t be here and l’d love to move vesty on as well.

[dannythefox]

39 minutes ago, Tomo260 said:

In my head, added with realistic expectations..

 

We should sell off Faes, Souttar, Vestergaard.

 

Keep Coady, Okoli and Nelson, use those 3 in rotation 

Why would you sell Souttar he’s exactly what we need. SU were gutted when he got injured. 

[Ryy]

2 hours ago, Tomo260 said:

In my head, added with realistic expectations..

 

We should sell off Faes, Souttar, Vestergaard.

 

Keep Coady, Okoli and Nelson, use those 3 in rotation 

Why tf would anyone wanna keep Coady

[ParkerPen]

1 hour ago, dannythefox said:

Why would you sell Souttar he’s exactly what we need. SU were gutted when he got injured. 

Souttar might ask the question, why would I stay ?

 

I think he's been incredibly hard done by, based on the crap all our CB options are and have been during his time here

[moore_94]

1 hour ago, dannythefox said:

Why would you sell Souttar he’s exactly what we need. SU were gutted when he got injured. 

Depends how his latest big injury is going to affect him for me (not that he can get any slower anyway)

 

I would sell him to Sheff Utd if we can get a decent fee

[The Hitman]

3 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

My head will be on Mars if it's not him and Souttar at the back next season.

I have a feeling that Souttar is coming up to an amount of appearances where we would have to make an add on payment for him. 
 

It’s the only way I can get my head round him not being ahead of what we’ve got. 

[Sunbury Fox]

16 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Depends how his latest big injury is going to affect him for me (not that he can get any slower anyway)

 

I would sell him to Sheff Utd if we can get a decent fee

Agree. He'd be fine in the Championship but don't think he would cut it in the PL judging by his performances for us in 22/23. We have to be looking ahead and going for players with a high potential ceiling, not those who we've seen are not really PL class. That's the mistake we made this season with previous PL failures like Faes, Vesty and VK.

Edited 7 April by Sunbury Fox

[mod hero]

50 minutes ago, Ryy said:

Why tf would anyone wanna keep Coady

Sound aint he 

[Lambert09]

4 hours ago, Tomo260 said:

In my head, added with realistic expectations..

 

We should sell off Faes, Souttar, Vestergaard.

 

Keep Coady, Okoli and Nelson, use those 3 in rotation 

If we want to be promoted, I think souttar is a must. coady is just not good enough 

[dannythefox]

2 hours ago, ParkerPen said:

Souttar might ask the question, why would I stay ?

 

I think he's been incredibly hard done by, based on the crap all our CB options are and have been during his time here

Because we’ll have a new manager that’s hopefully will give him a chance 

[Paninistickers]

2 hours ago, Sunbury Fox said:

he would cut it in the PL judging by his performances

All depends on tactics..

 

He had two excellent performances in that run in away at Brentford (lumping up to Toney) and Newcastle (us playing an 11 man defence and inviting pressure) 

 

As a low block defender, he's shown enough.

 

But I agree with your overall sentiment. Last time we used sub par PL players (who happen to be way above average Championship players) to get us back up. We need to resist that temptation this time and eventually come up with an energetic outfit in the way Fulham and Bournemouth did 3 or so years ago. 

[Tomo260]

4 hours ago, Ryy said:

Why tf would anyone wanna keep Coady

Because I said it was realistic. He's better than Faes imo and selling all the clown backs is too smart for the board to possibly achieve 

[ParkerPen]

3 hours ago, dannythefox said:

Because we’ll have a new manager that’s hopefully will give him a chance 

I hope your right , on both counts ! 

[Noahfence]

Oxford 1-0 win away at Wednesday. He’s getting good reviews from their fans. He has to be a starter next season. 

[Guest Dirkster the Fox]

Think this lad has broke the celling. 

 

So difficult leaving our U23 squad and then making it in mens football at Championship level on loan.  Looks like we've got a good un returning to us next season 💪

[Lambert09]

“Personally, I think he's top top drawer and is destined to have a long career at the top level.

His biggest impact I think is his ability to carry to ball out and progress the play forward.

We have decent defenders at this level in Brown, Moore & Helik however, when Nelson was out of the side I felt like we were so easy to defend against as the opposition knew the ball was either going to go long, sideways or short to one of the midfielders. I think he adds another dimension to our game and has allowed us to carry more of a threat and get up the pitch more.

As others have mentioned he perhaps doesn't dominate forwards as much as he could/should, but I think that will come. Easy to forget he has only just turned 21 and has less than 50 first team games. 

I have heard whispers of the Chelsea interest and it doesn't surprise me. If I was advising him I'd say to sit tight and have a full season in the Championship with Leicester next season. After that I think he'd be more than ready to make the step up to the Premier League”

“I see Nelson as a future England international.
Needs to stay injury free and needs to play.”

 

 

 

[cityfanlee23]

On 07/04/2025 at 12:28, James_lcfc said:

Faes and Vestergaard will be the starting partnership next year - Nelson will be behind Coady and Okoli in the pecking order.

 

I'm convinced we will never see the back of some of these players - They are here forever.

Ruud is being sacked and Faes is taking over as player manager. 

[moore_94]

 

[Noahfence]

Great clearance there!