Ryan Nelsen - "I love it at Ewood"

[elconejito]

I Love it at Ewood (http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/rovers/sport/ROVERS0.html)

nothing spectacular, just commenting about his new life there in Blackburn...

[RFK 315]

There is a really nice piece on the EPL website about Nellie. I had no idea he had played cricket. Lucky for DCU (and Rovers) he went with footie. And good on him for impressing them so quickly ! We're gonna miss him, of course, but I love reading how well he is representing.

NELSEN HAS NO REGRETS
Blackburn Rovers' new defensive star Ryan Nelsen turned his back on prospects of playing international cricket with New Zealand to pursue his football career.
Nelsen, a brilliant batsman as a schoolboy, was invited to join the New Zealand youth cricket set-up but chose football instead and now captains his country's soccer team - known as the All Whites.
The 27-year-old has had an astonishing impact in the Barclays Premiership since signing on a free transfer from DC United in January - he was named as Blackburn captain for the Lancashire derby against Burnley on Tuesday in place of the suspended Andy Todd after playing just six times for Rovers.
Life could have turned out so differently for Nelsen, who was rated at least the equal of his school contemporary Craig McMillan - now a Black Caps regular - when they were at St Thomas of Canterbury College.
Nelsen’s late grandfather had been head of the New Zealand FA, however - and there were other several ex-football internationals in his family, and he made a life-changing choice.
“They thought I was mad when I chose soccer over cricket. Their reaction was 'what's the future in soccer?',” said Nelsen.
He won a soccer scholarship to the USA where he excelled academically, too, emerging with a degree in political science from Stanford University.
Four years with DC United, and the captaincy of the New Zealand side, followed - before Blackburn manager Mark Hughes swooped in the transfer window, and Nelsen has settled in to the club as though he has lived in Lancashire all his life.
He said: “I absolutely love it here. I love the area. The club has a family atmosphere; everybody has been really nice and friendly and fantastic. It has been so much fun.
“From the first day I got here I felt happy with the management, the players, the facilities - it’s truly awesome.
“Everyone wants to play in the Premiership, and Blackburn have given me that opportunity - so I have been working really hard to please them.
“It was a surprise to get the armband on Tuesday - but it was a fantastic honour with a lot of other experienced players around. The game itself wasn’t pretty sometimes. But the main thing was to get the win, and I think in the end we deserved it - and Morten [Pedersen] hit an absolute blinder to win the game.
“I had a couple of chances to score myself with headers and I thought both of them were in actually. The goalkeeper made an instinctive save on the first one - it just hit him really. The second one, I was just trying to keep it down - but perhaps I headed it down too hard, because it bounced over the bar.”
Nelsen knows all about the importance of the FA Cup in this country and reckons Blackburn have a great opportunity to progress to at least the semi-finals.
He added: “I think we’ve got the players to make any game competitive. We’re not looking past Leicester in the quarter-finals, because that’s still going to be a very difficult game. But we’re very excited that we could have a good run in the cup ahead of us.
“That can help us in the Premiership too. Winning helps with anything - no matter who you’re playing against.
“If you’re winning games it’s contagious - and if you can get on a winning run then it keeps the ball rolling.”
Hughes, meanwhile, just thanks his lucky stars that Nelsen dropped into his lap.
The Blackburn manager said: “I just cannot understand why he was not picked up before. He has been fantastic; he came on a free transfer, and it has been a great bit of business.
“He’s a huge talent - a strong man both on and off the field. He has presence, and I gave him the captaincy because I thought his performances merited it.”


http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=setSelectedId&nextPage=enNewsLatest&id=816555&type=com.fapl.website.news.NewsItem&categoryCode=NewsLatestFAPremierLeagueNews&breadcrumb=latestfa_breadcrumb

[TEConnor]

Hughes: "I gave him the captaincy because I thought his performances merited it."

For my money, the play when he steps in to corrall the lunatic fan rushing at Savage is what did it for him. I thought to myself when I read about that (saw the game but the cameras missed the Nelsen intervention) that the one guy in the Premiership who could fend for himself would be Savage. Nelsen stepping in to protect Savage is a statement. As was said on the Blackburn supporters' site: this guy has balls. We all new that, but it's really fun to see him on a different and bigger stage.

Cheers,
Tim

[Sundevil9]

For my money, the play when he steps in to corrall the lunatic fan rushing at Savage is what did it for him. I thought to myself when I read about that (saw the game but the cameras missed the Nelsen intervention) that the one guy in the Premiership who could fend for himself would be Savage. Nelsen stepping in to protect Savage is a statement. As was said on the Blackburn supporters' site: this guy has balls. We all new that, but it's really fun to see him on a different and bigger stage.



On several occasions, I've seen Nellie come to the aid/support a teammate in an altercation. It was a great way to tell his new teammates that he was committed to Rovers, and a great indication of his character.

[DoctorD]

On several occasions, I've seen Nellie come to the aid/support a teammate in an altercation. It was a great way to tell his new teammates that he was committed to Rovers, and a great indication of his character.

See, being a teammate of Dema has its training value.

[Sanguine]

Hughes: "I gave him the captaincy because I thought his performances merited it."


Where's all the wankers who were spouting off that Nelsen wasn't Prem quality a few months ago? He went in the January transfer window, and was captaining his side by the beginning of March.

Yeah, he couldn't cut it alright... :rolleyes:

[Red&Black]

Hughes: "I gave him the captaincy because I thought his performances merited it."

For my money, the play when he steps in to corrall the lunatic fan rushing at Savage is what did it for him. I thought to myself when I read about that (saw the game but the cameras missed the Nelsen intervention) that the one guy in the Premiership who could fend for himself would be Savage. Nelsen stepping in to protect Savage is a statement. As was said on the Blackburn supporters' site: this guy has balls. We all new that, but it's really fun to see him on a different and bigger stage.

Cheers,
Tim
have you seen savage? those toothpick-skinny arms could barely push ruiz down

[Pints]

have you seen savage? those toothpick-skinny arms could barely push ruiz down

Come on Rob, you know as well as I do you don't need to push Ruiz to knock him down. :D

If their was a street fight between Savage and Nelsen, my money would go on Nelsen. Yeah I'm biased.

Ok enough silly.

[TEConnor]

have you seen savage? those toothpick-skinny arms could barely push ruiz down

He wouldn't use his arms. The guy has razor blades in his shoes.

Tim

[dcc134]

Don't ******** with Kiwis.

While I'm surprised he got the armband, I'm only surprised he got it so soon.

The man is a born leader.

[GoDC]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=326808&cc=5901

Hughes calls him one of his best signings ever!!! Nice of Ryan to pimp for NZ players but I wish he would have give MLS some credit too. Maybe he has done that other places that I haven't read.