Oxford (A) | Sat 13-Sept | 12:30 KO | Sky

[Stormfox]

15 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

I said this before about him being in the last two years now of his contract. This is the time to get players on a new contract or sell.

 

From his point of view, why would he sign a new contract? In the next 10 years or so as he reaches and goes through his peak and into his 30’s, I’d back him all day long to be consistently be operating at a higher level than the club (when he moves on).

 

The only way to keep him is to build the defence around him and show him he has a future here. As he is fourth choice, I think it would be bad sense from him to commit his medium term future here. I’d love to see him at the heart of the defence but I just think the business sense is to sell in January or the summer. He deserves to play and if that’s not here, he needs to think of his career and move on.

Was denied a loan, not playing... Not signing. If LCFC want to get something they need to convince him to sign but he won't sign before the summer, if at all, sadly. 

Edited 7 September 2025 by Stormfox

[Sly]

Soumare will start in midfield. 

[murphy]

15 hours ago, Reg Vardy said:

Always play your best team…..

Nelson is proven at this level and has a much higher ceiling than any of our other cbs.  The only way to get him there is to play him.   It is likely the only way we keep him too. 

[sdb]

It will be the same team as the one that recently won and played well. Page the only one likely to drop out, despite showing a lot of promise. No idea which new signing will come in for him, but the squad suddenly looks a lot stronger, which is great.

[FoxinNotts]

4 minutes ago, sdb said:

It will be the same team as the one that recently won and played well. Page the only one likely to drop out, despite showing a lot of promise. No idea which new signing will come in for him, but the squad suddenly looks a lot stronger, which is great.

If that's the case then the direct replacement for Page would be Ramsey

[Gamble92]

4 hours ago, murphy said:

Nelson is proven at this level and has a much higher ceiling than any of our other cbs.  The only way to get him there is to play him.   It is likely the only way we keep him too. 

Don't see what his house has to do with anything 

[Fox92]

On 06/09/2025 at 21:48, Reg Vardy said:

Always play your best team…..

At some point he has to be given a go. Vestergaard/Faes have proved to be fine at this level before but not good enough in the Premier League. Nelson has played well at this level too, so no issue there, but now needs to play otherwise his progress will stall.

[CosbehFox]

Nelson wasn't/isn't on the England Under 21s bench today so probably not 100% fit. 

[Long Eaton Fox]

On 07/09/2025 at 12:56, murphy said:

Nelson is proven at this level and has a much higher ceiling than any of our other cbs.  The only way to get him there is to play him.   It is likely the only way we keep him too. 

Surely Vestergaard has the highest ceiling

[Reg Vardy]

Vestergaard has arguably been our best player in the few games we have had…..sadly Ben Nelson wasn’t…..however, that’s not to say he won’t be in future…..should also point out Bassey and to a lesser degree Josh Knight, never got their opportunity with us….both decent footballers….

[honeybradger]

10 minutes ago, Reg Vardy said:

Vestergaard has arguably been our best player in the few games we have had…..sadly Ben Nelson wasn’t…..however, that’s not to say he won’t be in future…..should also point out Bassey and to a lesser degree Josh Knight, never got their opportunity with us….both decent footballers….

Vestergaard was horrible against Preston. The difference is that it was treated as a free hit and allowed to rebound, Nelson wasnt allowed that opportunity.

 

Most of us would have been happy had Vestergaard left on a free at the end of the season before last, most of us would be horrified if Nelson leaves on a free at the end of the next. That is the difference in value between the two.

Edited 8 September 2025 by honeybradger

[Reg Vardy]

The Manager works with both players virtually every day….and clearly sees Vestergaard and Okoli as preferable to Faes and Nelson…..making Nelson 3rd or maybe 4th choice centre back…..playing him is a gamble the club, and manager can’t afford to take…..9 points from 12 is good enough to support his judgement

[Pick Good Name Later]

We have looked more secure, more aligned, and more cohesive in the last couple of games than we have done in the last season and a half.

 

We need to be fielding our strongest team to allow us to win the matches in front of us this season. This, in my view, does not include Nelson. 
 

Two points. For those who reference Okoli and Vestergaard not being right for the PL. No argument, but where does it suggest that they will play should we return? They are our strongest partnership. Second, find Nelson a Championship team on loan in Jan where he picks up 90 minutes week in week out. Drop him the odd 15 minute cameo until then. Let him develop this way. Don’t play him now due to his ‘higher ceiling’ and potentially jeopardise results because of this.

 

 

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, Reg Vardy said:

The Manager works with both players virtually every day….and clearly sees Vestergaard and Okoli as preferable to Faes and Nelson…..making Nelson 3rd or maybe 4th choice centre back…..playing him is a gamble the club, and manager can’t afford to take…..9 points from 12 is good enough to support his judgement

We do need to balance now with the future though. Vestergaard and Faes are proven not to be Premier League quality. Okoli jury is out and Nelson won’t be as we will have stunted his development. If promoted, we will go into the season with no centre backs of Premier League quality and given our lack of investment, relegation would be a foregone conclusion again. 
 

Playing Nelson this season would in no way harm our chances of promotion but he’s the only one who could be Premier League quality but won’t be as he isn’t being given a chance. He probably will become a good PL quality defender but needs to move on from us to get there. 
 

As well as being less equipped on the pitch, we need to make big sales to sustain ourselves. Nelson would be a good shout for that but we are now in a position we will need to sell him for what we can get in January or next summer or he will walk for free in the summer of 2027.

 

Such poor planning and the amount of fans lapping up Vestergaard and Faes is disappointing.

[Bert]

Honestly can’t see many changes, other than maybe Ramsey coming in for Page. Would be very surprised to see James start given he’ll have been away with Wales and won’t have trained with us until Thursday. 

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Pick Good Name Later said:

We have looked more secure, more aligned, and more cohesive in the last couple of games than we have done in the last season and a half.

 

We need to be fielding our strongest team to allow us to win the matches in front of us this season. This, in my view, does not include Nelson. 
 

Two points. For those who reference Okoli and Vestergaard not being right for the PL. No argument, but where does it suggest that they will play should we return? They are our strongest partnership. Second, find Nelson a Championship team on loan in Jan where he picks up 90 minutes week in week out. Drop him the odd 15 minute cameo until then. Let him develop this way. Don’t play him now due to his ‘higher ceiling’ and potentially jeopardise results because of this.

 

 

We already did that last season and he aced it. We should be building our team around him. With only 2 years left on his deal we're risking a future £40m + player wanting out and us being worse off. This isthr rebuild phase, we need to be brave on Nelson. It's not as if he isn't ready like we maybe doing with Page for the greater good long term.

[Claridge]

36 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

We already did that last season and he aced it. We should be building our team around him. With only 2 years left on his deal we're risking a future £40m + player wanting out and us being worse off. This isthr rebuild phase, we need to be brave on Nelson. It's not as if he isn't ready like we maybe doing with Page for the greater good long term.

I don’t understand why he isn’t playing if he is ready, perhaps the manager thinks he isn’t ready👀

[Ric Flair]

1 minute ago, Claridge said:

I don’t understand why he isn’t playing if he is ready, perhaps the manager thinks he isn’t ready👀

Which would be a mistake on Marti's part, let's hope things change soon. 

[winteriscoming]

I want to see Nelson starting but you can’t blame Cifuentes for not starting him yet. 
Based on the shocking performance he had against Huddersfield you can imo understand his reasoning why. 
 

[Ric Flair]

14 minutes ago, winteriscoming said:

I want to see Nelson starting but you can’t blame Cifuentes for not starting him yet. 
Based on the shocking performance he had against Huddersfield you can imo understand his reasoning why. 
 

I know I keep repeating this but a) he was absolutely fine 2nd half and b) by that metric Vestergaard and Okoli should have been dropped after Preston and not picked again anytime soon and finally c) Page is being persevered with for the long term benefit despite being very much a work in progress. Trust the process blah blah blah

[Tommy Fresh]

18 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I know I keep repeating this but a) he was absolutely fine 2nd half and b) by that metric Vestergaard and Okoli should have been dropped after Preston and not picked again anytime soon and finally c) Page is being persevered with for the long term benefit despite being very much a work in progress. Trust the process blah blah blah

Be interesting to see him with Vestergaard, he's definitely a more calming presence than Faes. Think it was Charlton where Page lost the ball and they had a decent chance come from it, and you could see Vestergaard encouraging him

[Cincinnati Fox]

On 05/09/2025 at 16:47, Ric Flair said:

Hope Nelson gets some minutes

He really set him self back with the performance v uddersfield 

[Lambert09]

3 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I know I keep repeating this but a) he was absolutely fine 2nd half and b) by that metric Vestergaard and Okoli should have been dropped after Preston and not picked again anytime soon and finally c) Page is being persevered with for the long term benefit despite being very much a work in progress. Trust the process blah blah blah

cb has always been the hardest position to break into as youngster, if the manager isn’t convinced their ready, they won’t risk a game on it. if page is a bit sloppy, you can take him off without a lot of damage done. but if your cb makes mistakes, it could be game over. 

 

The huddesfield game would have spooked the manager and i’m sure he will integrate him when we are more in our groove. but for now, the club needed to get back to winning habits 

[Fox on the Rox]

15 hours ago, Pick Good Name Later said:

 Second, find Nelson a Championship team on loan in Jan where he picks up 90 minutes week in week out. Drop him the odd 15 minute cameo until then. Let him develop this way. Don’t play him now due to his ‘higher ceiling’ and potentially jeopardise results because of this.

 

 

Been there, seen that, done it at Oxford, they loved him and played him 90 minutes every game he was available. There's only so long we can leave him hanging. He probably will go on loan in January if he's not playing but if we think he's going to be signing a new contract when he's not in the starting 11 every week we're deluded. So he potentially walks in 2027. We'll get compensation anyway because he's an academy product. If he goes abroad though, that'll be significantly less than £1M, and whoever he goes to will be laughing all the way to the bank because they'll be sitting on a £30-40M profit at our expense!

[filbertway]

14 hours ago, Cincinnati Fox said:

He really set him self back with the performance v uddersfield 

Choudary nearly gave them 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of that game, later on he stood there and watched their winger walk about 20 yards towards goal unmarked for their equaliser.

 

He's managed to bag himself the armband and starting positions. 

Edited 9 September 2025 by filbertway