Ben Nelson

[coolhandfox]

13 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Page and Monga have only started when no other via senior option is available in that position. For Nelson he's got 3 other CBs to fight for two spots with. So far Cifuentes has only been a minor improvement on past managers for picking academy players but its very early days yet.

Have disagree on the Page one, he could have easily played Ayew and 10 and Daka at 9.

 

 

[Ric Flair]

6 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

Have disagree on the Page one, he could have easily played Ayew and 10 and Daka at 9.

 

 

See i'd argue thats too attacking for Cifuentes from the start so far. The #10 doesn't quite play that role at the minute, more of an 8 but fair point.

[CrispinLA in Texas]

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Edited 29 August 2025 by CrispinLA in Texas

[Fox on the Rox]

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

 

[honeybradger]

The argument that Nelson isnt ready to play for us doesnt hold any water.

 

Coady has 2700 minutes played for us and compare his time at Wrexham to Nelson's time at Oxford.

 

Coady has played himself out of the first XI at Wrexham due to sloppy performances whereas Nelson was an important part of a rock solid defence for Oxford at the end of last season, with good performances against teams like Leeds, Sheffield United and Sunderland who are all better than what we've faced so far this season. 

 

The thing is is that if Coady was still here you would have some fans arguing that he's somehow better than Nelson and deserves to be above him in the hierarchy.

[AjcW]

I think it's quite easy to summarise what has happened.

 

He was given a brief chance, looked shell-shocked and made errors, hasn't been seen since.

The manager cannot take risks this season, his remit is promotion. Whereas the luxury of a 16 year old impact winger has happened quite a lot, choosing a young starting centre back ahead of experienced (yet limited) pro's is going to be difficult, especially when he blew his audition!

 

The difficulty for him is Vesty turns into Baresi in the championship and Faes seems to be able to control things and link the midfield. 

 

He will have to take his chance next time there's an injury or suspension.

 

None of the above means he isn't good enough or indicates he wouldn't start for nearly every other team in this division by the way...

Edited 26 September 2025 by AjcW

[cropstonfox]

If he was foreign with a weird  haircut

He'd be labeled a bombscare 

Needs another loan.

Edited 26 September 2025 by cropstonfox

[moore_94]

6 minutes ago, AjcW said:

I think it's quite easy to summarise what has happened.

 

He was given a brief chance, looked shell-shocked and made errors, hasn't been seen since.

The manager cannot take risks this season, his remit is promotion. Whereas the luxury of a 16 year old impact winger has happened quite a lot, choosing a young starting centre back ahead of experienced (yet limited) pro's is going to be difficult, especially when he blew his audition!

 

The difficulty for him is Vesty turns into Baresi in the championship and Faes seems to be able to control things and link the midfield. 

 

He will have to take his chance next time there's an injury or suspension.

 

None of the above means he isn't good enough or indicates he wouldn't start for nearly every other team in this division by the way...

He would need 2 centre backs to be injured or suspended to get a go

[moore_94]

1 minute ago, cropstonfox said:

If he was foreign with a weird  haircut

He'd be labeled a bombscare 

Needs another loan.

Only if you base his ability from one half of football, where he was good the second half and also all his previously ability shown at this level

 

Get Jakub out of goal as well if that is the case

[Ric Flair]

8 minutes ago, AjcW said:

I think it's quite easy to summarise what has happened.

 

He was given a brief chance, looked shell-shocked and made errors, hasn't been seen since.

The manager cannot take risks this season, his remit is promotion. Whereas the luxury of a 16 year old impact winger has happened quite a lot, choosing a young starting centre back ahead of experienced (yet limited) pro's is going to be difficult, especially when he blew his audition!

 

The difficulty for him is Vesty turns into Baresi in the championship and Faes seems to be able to control things and link the midfield. 

 

He will have to take his chance next time there's an injury or suspension.

 

None of the above means he isn't good enough or indicates he wouldn't start for nearly every other team in this division by the way...

Then his brief is flawed for the long term strategy of this club. The club gave tried to pedal this new era and rebuild with a golden generation of academy talent with a manager with a track record for doing it. There's always a balancing act but if there's one case that needed focusing on it was Nelson. A) he has the experience at this level already and has excelled on every loan move. He also looked more than ready two years ago under Enzo and B) with less than two years on his deal we need to protect his worth. It's such an easy one as well. A good season under us equals a new contract and a player that will be worth £30-40m and talked about for England.

 

I am not having the excuses on this one. Fair enough on Louis Page at 17 and Aluko but not Nelson, people can fcuk right off with this excuse.

[Nick]

37 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Then his brief is flawed for the long term strategy of this club. The club gave tried to pedal this new era and rebuild with a golden generation of academy talent with a manager with a track record for doing it. There's always a balancing act but if there's one case that needed focusing on it was Nelson. A) he has the experience at this level already and has excelled on every loan move. He also looked more than ready two years ago under Enzo and B) with less than two years on his deal we need to protect his worth. It's such an easy one as well. A good season under us equals a new contract and a player that will be worth £30-40m and talked about for England.

 

I am not having the excuses on this one. Fair enough on Louis Page at 17 and Aluko but not Nelson, people can fcuk right off with this excuse.

It's hard because we don't know the full story. The manager clearly gives our youth players opportunity. After that it may be how they take that opportunity, where he thinks their heads are at at dealing with the pressure and when to give them that opportunity again or to send them out on loan for another stint. Everybody develops differently I guess, both physically and mentally.

 

It may be not a question of footballing ability right now but the ability to trust a youngster to perform under the lights and on the training ground at this level right now in his development.

[AjcW]

51 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Then his brief is flawed for the long term strategy of this club. The club gave tried to pedal this new era and rebuild with a golden generation of academy talent with a manager with a track record for doing it. There's always a balancing act but if there's one case that needed focusing on it was Nelson. A) he has the experience at this level already and has excelled on every loan move. He also looked more than ready two years ago under Enzo and B) with less than two years on his deal we need to protect his worth. It's such an easy one as well. A good season under us equals a new contract and a player that will be worth £30-40m and talked about for England.

 

I am not having the excuses on this one. Fair enough on Louis Page at 17 and Aluko but not Nelson, people can fcuk right off with this excuse.

Would you concede that at this level, sometimes you get one opportunity to take your shot and if it goes badly then you'll likely have to wait a while to get a chance to do better second time round?

 

I'm not saying it's the right thing either Ric, I can just see why we are currently persisting with certain individuals.

 

I also think we've not really experienced the Championship back to back games yet where rotation will come in, the next few weeks are what i'd call 'proper' championship schedules so definitely a chance for a few more to show their potential.

 

I think really these first few games has been about getting as many points as poss, I imagine we're behind where we might have wanted to be, and therefore we're sticking with certain people for now. 

[Ric Flair]

8 minutes ago, AjcW said:

Would you concede that at this level, sometimes you get one opportunity to take your shot and if it goes badly then you'll likely have to wait a while to get a chance to do better second time round?

 

I'm not saying it's the right thing either Ric, I can just see why we are currently persisting with certain individuals.

 

I also think we've not really experienced the Championship back to back games yet where rotation will come in, the next few weeks are what i'd call 'proper' championship schedules so definitely a chance for a few more to show their potential.

 

I think really these first few games has been about getting as many points as poss, I imagine we're behind where we might have wanted to be, and therefore we're sticking with certain people for now. 

No I don't, not unless that's how a manager is going to run things. Every poor performance equals being dropped and you're only as good as your last game. Plus, any manager will tell you that player development requires patience and learning on the job in the team but at the same time it's not a charity.

 

Vestergaard and Okoli should have been treated like Nelson after Preston away and even 1st half vs Sheffield Wednesday but it's not a healthy way of building consistency either. 

 

 

[Lambert09]

There’s serious ripple effects for lots of the squad because we couldn’t win that cup game. If we’d just got 3 games out of it our fringe players would have had a serious chance to challenge 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

I don't think he's any worse than Okoli (or Vestergaard) tbh. 

[Lambert09]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

No I don't, not unless that's how a manager is going to run things. Every poor performance equals being dropped and you're only as good as your last game. Plus, any manager will tell you that player development requires patience and learning on the job in the team but at the same time it's not a charity.

 

Vestergaard and Okoli should have been treated like Nelson after Preston away and even 1st half vs Sheffield Wednesday but it's not a healthy way of building consistency either. 

 

 

I think you’re both right at the same time tbh. It comes down to how the manager views someone. For Marti he saw a bomb scare pre-season game, then he got injured came back and had a bomb scare game against a lower league club. When you have the strength in depth we have, it’s very hard for him to throw out another opportunity until we have a bad run, or we’re cruising in a few games. 
 

hes 4th choice now and come December he may even end up 5th choice depending on souttars recovery.  The youth project has been okoli rather than Nelson and even though we all know Nelson is good enough, it’s his job to show the manager that 

[JimJams]

Marti is still figuring out his squad.  He'll get opportunities.  I don't think there's a need to shit it yet.

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, cropstonfox said:

If he was foreign with a weird  haircut

He'd be labeled a bombscare 

Needs another loan.

He absolutely doesn’t need a loan. He’s been on loan and proven himself already. He needs a permanent move away in January where he can kick start his career.

 

What is a loan going to achieve given that would leave him with one year left on his contract?

[LCFCJohn]

40 minutes ago, JimJams said:

Marti is still figuring out his squad.  He'll get opportunities.  I don't think there's a need to shit it yet.

Given now was the time to be showing him his future is with us, I think it is absolutely fair to accept his time is done. Even if he gets the odd minutes here and there, you’d have to think he will be planning a future elsewhere. It really comes down to if we can get a bit of profit or if we piss him around for the remainder of his contract and lose him for free. He’ll certainly be a great pick up for somebody and whoever it is will probably then make some good profit themselves off him down the line.

[dmayne7]

1 hour ago, AjcW said:

I think it's quite easy to summarise what has happened.

 

He was given a brief chance, looked shell-shocked and made errors, hasn't been seen since.

The manager cannot take risks this season, his remit is promotion. Whereas the luxury of a 16 year old impact winger has happened quite a lot, choosing a young starting centre back ahead of experienced (yet limited) pro's is going to be difficult, especially when he blew his audition!

 

The difficulty for him is Vesty turns into Baresi in the championship and Faes seems to be able to control things and link the midfield. 

 

He will have to take his chance next time there's an injury or suspension.

 

None of the above means he isn't good enough or indicates he wouldn't start for nearly every other team in this division by the way...

Does he? Pretty sure Baresi was excellent at defending and didn't cause his team to sit super deep.

 

Not for a second saying Vestergaard isn't a very good defender at this level but people get too swept up in his ability to pass under no pressure. His presence in the team causes a lot of issues, unless you have an ultra structured setup (as was under Maresca), and that only works when you are much better than your opposition which we aren't always going to be this year.

 

Unfortunately for Nelson, like all things in life, he's a massive victim of bad timing. That injury prior to the last pre season game probably took him out of the team and then he followed it up with a stinker of a first half in the league cup. Couple that with the fact that CB relies on experience more than any other position and it's easy for a manager to look last him.

 

Just hope he gets a chance this season as he has so much class and potential. He's a guy who's been linked with the big boys since he was 16/17 and obviously the Chelsea rumours this summer, so would be utterly criminal if we let him slip through our fingers (and hamper his career in the process)

[dmayne7]

2 hours ago, cropstonfox said:

If he was foreign with a weird  haircut

He'd be labeled a bombscare 

Needs another loan.

Tell me you've not really seen him play, without telling me 

[CrazyKopCorner]

From what I've seen I'd go so far to say that medium to longer term he's our best centre half. 

 

He looks to have nearly it all to me. Not sure how quick he is across the ground but reads the game pretty well. 

 

I'd play him now and be looking at the best player to play along side him. 

[AjcW]

I think like I said above, it's not really felt like a Championship season yet, wait until we're in the thick of Saturday, Tuesday, Friday and we'll see plenty of rotation and chances for those who haven't featured. Hopefully this time he grabs that chance.

[JimJams]

32 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

Given now was the time to be showing him his future is with us, I think it is absolutely fair to accept his time is done. Even if he gets the odd minutes here and there, you’d have to think he will be planning a future elsewhere. It really comes down to if we can get a bit of profit or if we piss him around for the remainder of his contract and lose him for free. He’ll certainly be a great pick up for somebody and whoever it is will probably then make some good profit themselves off him down the line.

In the summer 2026, we'll have Nelson on his final year.  We'll also have Vestergaard and Faes going into theirs.  I'm fairly confident Nelson will have his contract extended.  If we don't go up, I think he's the most likely of our 4 CB's (Souttar excluded) to stay with us.  If we go up, I think we dump Faes for any offer, and Nelson becomes a squad option for a Premier League side.  I think that's probably a more desirable option for him as well.  I'd like to see him play more and develop, but it's a long old season and I think he'll get a go whether by design or injury/suspension.  

Saying his time here is done seems incredibly premature.  Especially given the other options we have and their contract situations.

[LCFCJohn]

5 minutes ago, JimJams said:

In the summer 2026, we'll have Nelson on his final year.  We'll also have Vestergaard and Faes going into theirs.  I'm fairly confident Nelson will have his contract extended.  If we don't go up, I think he's the most likely of our 4 CB's (Souttar excluded) to stay with us.  If we go up, I think we dump Faes for any offer, and Nelson becomes a squad option for a Premier League side.  I think that's probably a more desirable option for him as well.  I'd like to see him play more and develop, but it's a long old season and I think he'll get a go whether by design or injury/suspension.  

Saying his time here is done seems incredibly premature.  Especially given the other options we have and their contract situations.

It’s not always premature. It’s seeing things early. Like with Rodgers tanking us.

 

But as I have said before, what reason have we given Nelson to extend with us? If he has his head screwed on, he’ll be looking for a move to secure first team football as soon as possible.

 

And we are also wasting his development. If we do get promoted this season, he’ll be useless to us next season as he won’t be anywhere near ready for that level. 
 

Any player in the last two years, who isn’t part of the plans ultimately needs to be moved on, regardless of being an academy player. So that is where Nelson is at and I hope his agent is working on that for him. Hopefully he’ll move on and be a great success elsewhere.