Ben Nelson

[Dahnsouff]

8 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

There’s a clamour for Braybrooke to come back because people wanna see him get minutes ahead of Booby, Winks and The Plonker 

But they aren't starters at the moment, so he would be on the bench. Makes no sense. Leave him there playing and improving.

[Mickyblueeyes]

34 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Never got the constant simping over academy prospects - I couldn’t give a monkeys where you are from if you perform when you pull the shirt on. 
 

Trouble is nobody performs academy or not, aside from possibly James and glimpses of Fatawu. 
 

Braybrooke will be the next, he’s now the second coming after a handful of good performances for a pony league 2 team. 
 

Can’t relate to anything with the club at the minute so judgement probably a bit clouded, but Nelson won’t make it above this level and happy to be proved wrong in a cpl of years time. 

It’s difficult at any stage to judge where a player would get to and what level. Plenty have struggled to step up despite looking like world beaters at this level. Sure things. A lot of factors. Luke Thomas as an example, early on would’ve looked like a superstar at this level. Now he looks like he’s reaching. KDH for someone on the other side looks very good at the PL level, I’m sure a lot would’ve said that 5/6 years ago. 
 

However, for now, we are at this level and Nelson has shown glimpses of being good to very good at this level. If we had to buy him in the summer as starting CB, it would be a building block. We don’t need to buy him, he’s come through and will obviously be raw. People have to give that rawness time to develop. I think that’s fair. If, as a club, we are saying the “good” is coming from the academy. The stands have to be understanding at the inconsistency that brings. 

[Tommy G]

3 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

It’s difficult at any stage to judge where a player would get to and what level. Plenty have struggled to step up despite looking like world beaters at this level. Sure things. A lot of factors. Luke Thomas as an example, early on would’ve looked like a superstar at this level. Now he looks like he’s reaching. KDH for someone on the other side looks very good at the PL level, I’m sure a lot would’ve said that 5/6 years ago. 
 

However, for now, we are at this level and Nelson has shown glimpses of being good to very good at this level. If we had to buy him in the summer as starting CB, it would be a building block. We don’t need to buy him, he’s come through and will obviously be raw. People have to give that rawness time to develop. I think that’s fair. If, as a club, we are saying the “good” is coming from the academy. The stands have to be understanding at the inconsistency that brings. 

Understand your points but plenty on here wanted him club captain this season - it’s just overhyped - I just don’t think he’s that good to put into the bracket of a future England star or “absolutely class act” etc 

 

We have a habit of massively overhyping our own players then becoming disappointed- Hamza, Thomas, Alves etc. 

 

it’s not surprising we overhype given how crap the competition is from the older heads in the squad. 

[Mickyblueeyes]

1 minute ago, Tommy G said:

Understand your points but plenty on here wanted him club captain this season - it’s just overhyped - I just don’t think he’s that good to put into the bracket of a future England star or “absolutely class act” etc 

 

We have a habit of massively overhyping our own players then becoming disappointed- Hamza, Thomas, Alves etc. 

 

it’s not surprising we overhype given how crap the competition is from the older heads in the squad. 

Yeah get that. And sometimes fans (not just Leicester fans but fans generally) do go from one extreme to another on young players and they do have inconsistency. Even at the highest level. Cole Palmer looked like he could score 40 goal a season just a couple of seasons ago and has cooled down a bit (no pun intended). Bellingham has had his ups and downs in form. Dele Alli is an example (albeit with some well documented external factors) of a player falling away. 
 

 

The dream is to have 5/6 youth products playing in the first team. It rarely happens. What we do have here is some real potential in a few. And it’s nice to dream at the present time. 

[Rubbersoul]

I think people look at our academy players through the lens of us still being a top 5 premier league side and they’d struggle to make the jump up. 

We are a bottom half Championship side with no money to spend.

 

Braybrooke going from League 2 to the Championship next season really isn’t that unrealistic. So not sure why him being at Newport is used to bash him. 
 

[Dahnsouff]

Agree, Braybrooke should absolutely be involved next season, potentially as a starter if he continues to impress, or we get relegated.

Doubly so if we don't confirm JJ.

[filbertway]

Couple of people that get a proper hard on when an academy players doesnt stick in an 8 out 10

 

Can someone critique the performance objectively? Not really a CB expert so not sure what he did that was diabolical.

 

[Rubbersoul]

1 minute ago, Dahnsouff said:

Agree, Braybrooke should absolutely be involved next season, potentially as a starter if he continues to impress, or we get relegated.

Doubly so if we don't confirm JJ.

He’ll hopefully get a look in Pre season. I don’t care what anyone says the kid is extremely talented.
 

It’s not just Leicester fans praising him. Plenty of opposition fans have singled him out as being really good. 
 

He might not be a Prem level midfielder but it’s not looking like we’ll be a Prem level team any time soon.

[OntarioFox]

I'm willing to give Ben some leeway for that garbage at Loftus Road. He's not been consistently disappointing us week-in, week-out for seasons on end like some players.

 

The plan this season for most fans was to make heavy use of the academy players, forgive inconsistencies and mistakes, and see a proper transition away from the morons who sleepwalked us to the mess we're now in.

 

With that in mind, it's very premature to be pulling out "I told you so" and whatnot over a stinker from a home-made player who, otherwise, has seen an upturn in defensive form in the past month and barely put a foot wrong.

The alternative is Faes partnering Vestergaard. To quote the KPFC sycophants on Facebook, be careful what you wish for.

 

Edited 21 December 2025 by OntarioFox

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

So he’s better than complete sh*t which is what we already have in that position? Being better than Faes and Vestergaard isn’t a yardstick tbh. 
 

Yeh you might be shocked if he isn’t playing above championship level and id be shocked if he is - opinions. 

Yeah you’re right. Let’s get rid of anyone who has a bad game and play James on his own 👍
 

Oh and I never said about him playing above Championship level (though I think he will). I said he’ll be playing above us.

Edited 21 December 2025 by LCFCJohn

[Muzzy_no7]

57 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

But they aren't starters at the moment, so he would be on the bench. Makes no sense. Leave him there playing and improving.

He would be the 3rd option behind JJ and Skipp.

 

Well worth coming back from the bottom of league two for. 

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

He would be the 3rd option behind JJ and Skipp.

 

Well worth coming back from the bottom of league two for. 

Surely its better to be playing all season than getting sub appearances, regardless of league?

[Claridge]

6 hours ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Tell me you’ve not watched much of Nelson without saying you’ve not watched much of Nelson. 

sorry he’s crap on the ball but rapid, not sure what your view is

[Tommy G]

55 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

Yeah you’re right. Let’s get rid of anyone who has a bad game and play James on his own 👍
 

Oh and I never said about him playing above Championship level (though I think he will). I said he’ll be playing above us.

Play James on his own? So you’ve run out of points to make and just make random statements like that, if you are going to argue the point at least make it worthwhile 

[LCFCJohn]

7 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Play James on his own? So you’ve run out of points to make and just make random statements like that, if you are going to argue the point at least make it worthwhile 

Well if you’re going to be this negative about young players having one bad game, it warrants a stupid reply to be fair!

 

I have no issue with you. You’re a solid poster on here. By your own admission in one of your posts further up, you said you are probably being overly negative on account of being disillusioned with everything about the club (or some wording to that effect, not that exactly). 
 

I’m fed up with then club also. But a grabbing any positives there are to not give up completely on the club. And bad game on Saturday aside, Nelson is most definitely still a positive.

[Cincinnati Fox]

11 hours ago, ALC Fox said:

He's very young for a centre back. Ideally he'd be brought in alongside a good pro in a decent team. Vestergaard is a good pro but he's hardly brilliant and the back line in general is shocking.

 

His performances are always going to fluctuate in quality. Putting the spotlight on him each time he has a bad one is just not going to be helpful at all.

 

He needs to be allowed to have a bad performance every now and again without the entire fan base falling apart each time and overreacting.

 

Edited 22 December 2025 by Cincinnati Fox

[SafewayFox]

I know we’re all angry with the club/Marti/players but it’s actually a proper sad state of affairs that Nelson seems to have received a bizarre reaction on here.

 

I want the lad to do well because he’s not Wout/Jannik etc etc.

 

It’s a bonus that he’s an academy lad but as a few have said, there seems to be a strange agenda against our own on here, chill out everyone. Nelson is far from being the problem for us.

[Claudio Fannieri]

He will have a bad game occasionally, as all players do, put it in the weeping cupboard and move on. Saturday was a shit show on the pitch with nobody including the manager coming out of that with much in the way of credit. 
 

 

[Dan]

It's a painfully boring discussion because it goes in circles but...

 

We are very unlikely to be promoted this season. Not impossible, but very unlikely.

 

We are in a financial mess, one that is very likely to land us a points deduction, one that is quite possibly responsible for a situation where we have not paid staff on time.

 

Therefore we need to make more prudent financial decisions. Therefore Nelson, who has been no worse than Vestergaard and no worse than Faes, should be given more leeway because he is the only one of them that has a chance of being any use if by some miracle we are promoted, the other two have proven they are not up to it. He is also the only one that could potentially command a big fee that goes a way to fixing the mess we've put ourselves in.

 

The only situation where Faes and Vestergaard should be prioritised over Nelson for this season is if they are playing well enough to get us promoted. This is quite obviously not the case.

 

This isn't even to do with youth players as such. I think if he was fit I would probably have Okoli in the team over Vestergaard as well, for a similar reason, though I'm less convinced of him than I am of Nelson, currently.

 

This is really not that complicated. I am going to be biased towards him, and give him more leeway, because he has actual potential to be of use to us where the other two have basically none in the long-term, and are frankly not delivering it in the short-term either.

 

I would also replicate this scenario given our blatantly obvious non-promotion for Aluko and Evans. 

 

All we have done in the last couple of years especially is make short-term decisions where we harm ourselves in the long-term, without even achieving our short-term aims either. The absolute worst of both worlds.

 

So yes, Nelson should get more leeway, very obviously.

[Dan]

24 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

I know we’re all angry with the club/Marti/players but it’s actually a proper sad state of affairs that Nelson seems to have received a bizarre reaction on here.

 

I want the lad to do well because he’s not Wout/Jannik etc etc.

 

It’s a bonus that he’s an academy lad but as a few have said, there seems to be a strange agenda against our own on here, chill out everyone. Nelson is far from being the problem for us.

It's a knock-on effect from the short-termism that the manager, or maybe even his bosses originally chose this season. The entire 'rebuild' had no conviction about it whatsoever, as fully expected under this regime.

 

They're a very easy example to use because of how well they are doing this season, but Sunderland took exactly the approach we should take now. This left them in a position where they were financially sound enough to be able to go up and spend big money.

 

The absolute peak we can achieve in our current state is the bottom three of the Premier League, and that isn't remotely likely either.

[Tommy Fresh]

11 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Understand your points but plenty on here wanted him club captain this season - it’s just overhyped - I just don’t think he’s that good to put into the bracket of a future England star or “absolutely class act” etc 

 

We have a habit of massively overhyping our own players then becoming disappointed- Hamza, Thomas, Alves etc. 

 

it’s not surprising we overhype given how crap the competition is from the older heads in the squad. 

Other clubs must overhype Nelson as well then considering we turned down bids for him, also your logic that we overhype our own academy players doesn't explain the hype Oxford fans gave him does it?

[Muzzy_no7]

11 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Surely its better to be playing all season than getting sub appearances, regardless of league?

I’d say 6 months in league two + being our 3rd choice midfielder till the end of the season is better than a whole season in league two. 

[Tommy G]

1 hour ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Other clubs must overhype Nelson as well then considering we turned down bids for him, also your logic that we overhype our own academy players doesn't explain the hype Oxford fans gave him does it?

Did we turn down bids or is that just hearsay?

 

Of course he's going to look good at Oxford, they are a small championship club. 

 

 

[Tommy Fresh]

Just now, Tommy G said:

Did we turn down bids or is that just hearsay?

 

Of course he's going to look good at Oxford, they are a small championship club. 

 

 

John Percy reported it, so seems fairly likely to have some truth to it doesn't it, it's not Sean from Enderby saying it.

 

Looking good because he's at a small championship club as a defender probably works against your argument doesn't it, as he likely had to do more defending 

[Tommy G]

Just now, Tommy Fresh said:

John Percy reported it, so seems fairly likely to have some truth to it doesn't it, it's not Sean from Enderby saying it.

 

Looking good because he's at a small championship club as a defender probably works against your argument doesn't it, as he likely had to do more defending 

I'm talking about the pedigree of player they are used to having at Oxford, not the amount of defending he needs to do. 

 

Sounds like it was Maresca admiring Nelson than a bid rejected