Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[SafewayFox]

Marti’s words and actions haven’t added up in relation to the academy.

 

Before anyone suggests Monga, he’s a completely different beast plus our winger options are more limited than we’d like to admit IMO.

 

Page not making the squad the moment that Reid is fit, is concerning for me.

 

Nelson getting a lot of minutes in pre-season surely would have given him the appetite to kick on rather than be 4th choice, so with his contract running out in the summer of 27 is a worry.

 

Aluko being our most athletic FB not getting a sniff in match day squads has wound me up a lot more than it should too.

[Fox on the Rox]

12 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

I hope someone else goes and he plays! Why the hell would anyone want anything else!?!?!!

Anyone who has the interests of the player at heart.

[Tommy Fresh]

2 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

I think personally Ben would have preferred to be trusted and get the season under his belt.

 

And you say I’m making assumptions. Isn’t thinking he will start from January an even wilder one on your part? Where is the sign he will be involved? He isn’t even making the bench!

 

But what about the following?

 

Should we go up, what will we do having no centre backs capable at PL level? We will have to buy 2 before thinking about anything else.

 

You didn’t address the point about the fans. You’re honestly telling me people won’t be on his back the second he makes a mistake? The kids confidence will be crushed.

 

His contract situation. Let’s say your assumption (that’s what it is), that Ben is just find with being left out the squad whilst Faes and Vestergaard stink the place out, his contract still doesn’t have long left and you’re honestly telling me you think he’ll turn down other offers to stay here with no guarantees of first team football? I don’t.

There's always a chance if he plays that he still turns us down, so why on earth wouldn't we be playing him to try and increase his value, just in case we do need to try and move him on

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, Tommy Fresh said:

There's always a chance if he plays that he still turns us down, so why on earth wouldn't we be playing him to try and increase his value, just in case we do need to try and move him on

Faes, Vestergaard and Nelson's deals all end in 2027.

 

One doesn't want to be here and will be 29, one we shouldn't have extended anyway and will be 35 and the other will be a 23 year old academy grad. I wonder who will keep getting the minutes?

 

This is a classic case study in Rudkin's negligence. He shouldn't have given Vestergaard the new deal, should have shifted Faes for a fee so the pathway for Nelson should be clear. It's almost grimly funny that he doesn't even overplay the academy. It's his life's work and trusting in the youth would be a plausible excuse for being so shit over the past few years, instead we have a promising pipeline and we we just play proven older failures instead. Genuinely the worst of all worlds.

 

At this rate we'll lose Nelson for a low-ish fee (could have gotten more in the summer of course), he'll absolutely fly elsewhere and we(the fans) will be reeling. 

[Tommy Fresh]

7 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Faes, Vestergaard and Nelson's deals all end in 2027.

 

One doesn't want to be here and will be 29, one we shouldn't have extended anyway and will be 35 and the other will be a 23 year old academy grad. I wonder who will keep getting the minutes?

 

This is a classic case study in Rudkin's negligence. He shouldn't have given Vestergaard the new deal, should have shifted Faes for a fee so the pathway for Nelson should be clear. It's almost grimly funny that he doesn't even overplay the academy. It's his life's work and trusting in the youth would be a plausible excuse for being so shit over the past few years, instead we have a promising pipeline and we we just play proven older failures instead. Genuinely the worst of all worlds.

 

At this rate we'll lose Nelson for a low-ish fee (could have gotten more in the summer of course), he'll absolutely fly elsewhere and we(the fans) will be reeling. 

Ah remember when we used to actually have succession plans and always seemed to be looking forwards, Maguire leaving being the perfect example

[Stadt]

5 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Ah remember when we used to actually have succession plans and always seemed to be looking forwards, Maguire leaving being the perfect example

It didn't work out perfectly but Soyuncu and Benkovic were smart signings and integrated before the sale iirc. We were a bit smarter with Macia as HoR

[Fox92]

17 hours ago, FoxinNotts said:

I Like him. He's clearly up for it, and has made sacrifices to be our manger, if you believe what you read.

He lives at the training ground, whilst his family are still based in Barcelona.

Really hope he succeeds here

 

 

What sacrifices? He was on gardening leave at QPR before last season even ended because he wanted to speak to West Brom. 

[slymunn]

8 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

What sacrifices? He was on gardening leave at QPR before last season even ended because he wanted to speak to West Brom. 

He paid some of his own release fee from QPR to come here I believe..

[Ric Flair]

There's got to be part of Nelson that's immensely frustrated. He's been on the fringes of our first team since he was 16/17. 5 years later he's done all the hard years on loan and aced everything thats been asked of him. He's excelled at this level, he's also got on his CV games for us at this level in a promotion chasing side to boot.

 

He'll likely feel he's got everything boxed off as much as he can and yet he still is no nearer to being used in the first team as he was 2 years ago.

 

He'll also be aware we've rejected bids from bigger clubs and I highly suspect theres been conversations about his future given his contract situation. All of it is not in anyway ideal for one of our most well regarded academy players with tangible experience across the EFL leagues at his age.

 

You could almost begrudge it under a manager who's got no appetite for academy development, but we're told we've one of the best around for being brave and playing them. I think this is the one thing Cifuentes has wrong currently. I can agree to disagree on demoting Page as soon as they've convinced him to sign a new deal, despite how the optics may look. This is just an all round decision right now.

[AKCJ]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

There's got to be part of Nelson that's immensely frustrated. He's been on the fringes of our first team since he was 16/17. 5 years later he's done all the hard years on loan and aced everything thats been asked of him. He's excelled at this level, he's also got on his CV games for us at this level in a promotion chasing side to boot.

 

He'll likely feel he's got everything boxed off as much as he can and yet he still is no nearer to being used in the first team as he was 2 years ago.

 

He'll also be aware we've rejected bids from bigger clubs and I highly suspect theres been conversations about his future given his contract situation. All of it is not in anyway ideal for one of our most well regarded academy players with tangible experience across the EFL leagues at his age.

 

You could almost begrudge it under a manager who's got no appetite for academy development, but we're told we've one of the best around for being brave and playing them. I think this is the one thing Cifuentes has wrong currently. I can agree to disagree on demoting Page as soon as they've convinced him to sign a new deal, despite how the optics may look. This is just an all round decision right now.

I'd be very surprised if Nelson isn't starting every week by Christmas.

 

I think Marti has to have self-preservation at the forefront of his mind while we've had this very uncertain start. 

 

I think there's 6 players he'll see in his ideal starting 11 that would need time before they were starting each week. Monga, Winks, Ramsey, Nelson, James and Ricardo.

 

None of those were starting games at the beginning of the season for different reasons. Monga had to work his way into the 11 with an underperforming Mavididi. Winks had to prove his commitment. Ramsey and Ricardo had to prove their fitness. James had to show that he could still impact games like he did at Birmingham.

 

The only one left is Nelson and I think that this is because we're absolutely stacked at centre half for a Championship side. He'll be seen as the lowest priority to get into the team by Marti out of those 6 players.

[Dahnsouff]

3 hours ago, Fox on the Rox said:

Anyone who has the interests of the player at heart.

Way too much faux outrage and projection for my tastes.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

7 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

I'd be very surprised if Nelson isn't starting every week by Christmas.

 

I think Marti has to have self-preservation at the forefront of his mind while we've had this very uncertain start. 

 

I think there's 6 players he'll see in his ideal starting 11 that would need time before they were starting each week. Monga, Winks, Ramsey, Nelson, James and Ricardo.

 

None of those were starting games at the beginning of the season for different reasons. Monga had to work his way into the 11 with an underperforming Mavididi. Winks had to prove his commitment. Ramsey and Ricardo had to prove their fitness. James had to show that he could still impact games like he did at Birmingham.

 

The only one left is Nelson and I think that this is because we're absolutely stacked at centre half for a Championship side. He'll be seen as the lowest priority to get into the team by Marti out of those 6 players.

I hope so. My theory is that we’re desperate to sell Faes and won’t be able to if he’s not playing. Hopefully he does well and someone buys him in Jan.

 

On WYS it was suggested he isn’t quick enough to cover Jannik if playing with him. Could be some truth in that. 

 

I really rate Nelson and will be gutted if we end up losing him. 

[jv1]

27 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

There's got to be part of Nelson that's immensely frustrated. He's been on the fringes of our first team since he was 16/17. 5 years later he's done all the hard years on loan and aced everything thats been asked of him. He's excelled at this level, he's also got on his CV games for us at this level in a promotion chasing side to boot.

 

He'll likely feel he's got everything boxed off as much as he can and yet he still is no nearer to being used in the first team as he was 2 years ago.

 

He'll also be aware we've rejected bids from bigger clubs and I highly suspect theres been conversations about his future given his contract situation. All of it is not in anyway ideal for one of our most well regarded academy players with tangible experience across the EFL leagues at his age.

 

You could almost begrudge it under a manager who's got no appetite for academy development, but we're told we've one of the best around for being brave and playing them. I think this is the one thing Cifuentes has wrong currently. I can agree to disagree on demoting Page as soon as they've convinced him to sign a new deal, despite how the optics may look. This is just an all round decision right now.

If he was good enough he would be playing - marti sees him every day - he has no reason not to play him if he is better or as good as the guys in the 11 - managers don’t get the luxury nowadays - they don’t have the time - they have to play the best team they have available and he quite simply obviously isnt as good as the others in his position- and if you say would would rather he was playing and the results were worse you are an ostrich

[pmcla26]

Unfortunately promotion is worth a lot more than developing Ben Nelson. 
 

He will get minutes, there is lots of football left to be played. 
 

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Faes move in January as well - he will be pushing hard to try get back into Belgium’s squad for the summer, and I don’t think playing in the Championship will get him there. 
 

We also paid good money for Okoli, so I wonder if there is also a pressure from the higher ups to prioritise his development with our PSR struggles (i.e. don’t make a loss on him, anything for Nelson would be pure profit) 

[Gamble92]

28 minutes ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

I hope so. My theory is that we’re desperate to sell Faes and won’t be able to if he’s not playing. Hopefully he does well and someone buys him in Jan.

 

On WYS it was suggested he isn’t quick enough to cover Jannik if playing with him. Could be some truth in that. 

 

I really rate Nelson and will be gutted if we end up losing him. 

Faes is also by far our best defender. Can't stand the way football fans see mistakes at a higher level and correlate that to him playing at this level. Okay I'm as pissed off with him as anyone for his attitude, which is probably peoples main gripe with him, but I've learned to put up with that with modern footballers. Especially how low the bar is for us at the minute. 

 

There's a narrative on here that anyone that's academy needs to start but we need to bounce back as quick as we can. This fantasy world where we build for years at this level with Nelson, Page, Monga and Aluko just doesn't happen. 

[Stormfox]

54 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

There's got to be part of Nelson that's immensely frustrated. He's been on the fringes of our first team since he was 16/17. 5 years later he's done all the hard years on loan and aced everything thats been asked of him. He's excelled at this level, he's also got on his CV games for us at this level in a promotion chasing side to boot.

 

He'll likely feel he's got everything boxed off as much as he can and yet he still is no nearer to being used in the first team as he was 2 years ago.

 

He'll also be aware we've rejected bids from bigger clubs and I highly suspect theres been conversations about his future given his contract situation. All of it is not in anyway ideal for one of our most well regarded academy players with tangible experience across the EFL leagues at his age.

 

You could almost begrudge it under a manager who's got no appetite for academy development, but we're told we've one of the best around for being brave and playing them. I think this is the one thing Cifuentes has wrong currently. I can agree to disagree on demoting Page as soon as they've convinced him to sign a new deal, despite how the optics may look. This is just an all round decision right now.

I think he'll be looking to move in January. 

[Blueman1967]

Regarding players not in the first team, it is a long season, and they will get injuries, plus a few might leave in January.

[honeybradger]

48 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Faes is also by far our best defender. Can't stand the way football fans see mistakes at a higher level and correlate that to him playing at this level. Okay I'm as pissed off with him as anyone for his attitude, which is probably peoples main gripe with him, but I've learned to put up with that with modern footballers. Especially how low the bar is for us at the minute. 

 

There's a narrative on here that anyone that's academy needs to start but we need to bounce back as quick as we can. This fantasy world where we build for years at this level with Nelson, Page, Monga and Aluko just doesn't happen. 

Have a look at the Wout Faes thread in March - April 2024 at the end of the last championship season. We were all calling for Faes to be dropped because of his mistakes at championship level, which were costing us points every week. For those of us that remember the last time Faes was starting in the championship for us we know that playing at a lower level doesnt stop him having those brain farts, it just means the opposition capitalise on them less. Even this season in his limited starts he's had a number of brain farts.

 

Ben Nelson when he was fit last season transformed one of the worst defences in the championship in Oxford United into one of the best. Oxford fans described him as calm, composed and very rarely made mistakes. That is the kind of defender we need at the heart of our defence, we didnt see that player against Huddersfield but it's in our best interests to integrate him and get him back to that level rather than persist with Faes who we all know is incredibly error prone, which will never change.

Edited 17 October 2025 by honeybradger

[Gamble92]

5 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Have a look at the Wout Faes thread in March - April 2024 at the end of the last championship season. We were all calling for Faes to be dropped because of his mistakes at championship level, which were costing us points every week. For those of us that remember the last time Faes was starting in the championship for us we know that playing at a lower level doesnt stop him having those brain farts, it just means the opposition capitalise on them less. Even this season in his limited starts he's had a number of brain farts.

 

Ben Nelson when he was fit last season transformed one of the worst defences in the championship in Oxford United into one of the best. Oxford fans described him as calm, composed and very rarely made mistakes. That is the kind of defender we need at the heart of our defence, we didnt see that player against Huddersfield but it's in our best interests to integrate him and get him back to that level rather than persist with Faes who we all know is incredibly error prone, which will never change.

We've looked better in every game Faes came on in. Birmingham for instance he was able to beat their press a number of times when he come on. Him and Vestegaard are much better on the ball than Okoli (who I also see people say should start alongside Nelson). 

 

I'm not going to argue about his mistakes. He's made plenty. But him and Vestegaard have won us a hell of a lot more than they've lost us at this level by playing the way they do. The Premier League is a whole different conversation but at this level they're the best we have and without looking I'd suggest their stats around playing out the back are some of the best in the league.

[Noahfence]

I saw some stat yesterday and it basically said we’re one of the worst pressing sides in the league (unless I misread it) 

[honeybradger]

4 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

We've looked better in every game Faes came on in. Birmingham for instance he was able to beat their press a number of times when he come on. Him and Vestegaard are much better on the ball than Okoli (who I also see people say should start alongside Nelson). 

 

I'm not going to argue about his mistakes. He's made plenty. But him and Vestegaard have won us a hell of a lot more than they've lost us at this level by playing the way they do. The Premier League is a whole different conversation but at this level they're the best we have and without looking I'd suggest their stats around playing out the back are some of the best in the league.

 

I saw this the other day, yes Faes is one of the more progressive defenders in the championship but the question is whether it creates more goals than his inconsistent defending results in us conceding. I'm not sure it does.

[beepee1984]

4 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

 

I saw this the other day, yes Faes is one of the more progressive defenders in the championship but the question is whether it creates more goals than his inconsistent defending results in us conceding. I'm not sure it does.

It is definately why Marti likes playing him and Okoli was poor with the ball when he has been used, but I do agree with you that his errors are becoming too common and a less then 35% aerial duel is shocking for a CB in this league and puts us under unneccessary pressure

[slymunn]

7 hours ago, SafewayFox said:

Marti’s words and actions haven’t added up in relation to the academy.

 

Before anyone suggests Monga, he’s a completely different beast plus our winger options are more limited than we’d like to admit IMO.

 

Page not making the squad the moment that Reid is fit, is concerning for me.

 

Nelson getting a lot of minutes in pre-season surely would have given him the appetite to kick on rather than be 4th choice, so with his contract running out in the summer of 27 is a worry.

 

Aluko being our most athletic FB not getting a sniff in match day squads has wound me up a lot more than it should too.

Don't think the cup defeat helped, as he did play a fair few in that match.

[LCFCJohn]

5 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

There's always a chance if he plays that he still turns us down, so why on earth wouldn't we be playing him to try and increase his value, just in case we do need to try and move him on

I think we have just got it completely backwards with him. I’m not one for ‘start a team of kids’ but his situation is different. 
 

I’m usually balanced about things but this annoys me. I am sure we are going to end up regretting this and miss out on him. 
 

The most recent things I have felt this sure about and a strongly about are;

 

Rodgers needed to go as we were going backwards so fast under him we were at risk of getting relegated. I said this to a Newcastle supporting mate when their takeover happened in October 2021!

 

Aiyawatt is an incompetent nepo baby, also felt this for a long time.

 

I trust my gut on these as history tends to evidence I am right when it comes to these feelings!

[LCFCJohn]

2 hours ago, jv1 said:

If he was good enough he would be playing - marti sees him every day - he has no reason not to play him if he is better or as good as the guys in the 11 - managers don’t get the luxury nowadays - they don’t have the time - they have to play the best team they have available and he quite simply obviously isnt as good as the others in his position- and if you say would would rather he was playing and the results were worse you are an ostrich

Quite simply, if he isn’t ask good as Vestergaard and Faes, he has no future here anyway and we should cash in for what we can get, before his contract gets into its last year and before his stock drops any more.