So I thought ‘Hang on I have got absolutely nothing to fall back on no education’

So I thought, ‘Hang on, I have got absolutely nothing to fall back on, no education’, and that acted as a kind of wake-up call. If sport was taken away, what was I going to do?”What he did was accept a sport-associated scholarship in political science in the United States in 1997, going first to Greensboro College in North Carolina for two years and then to Stanford University in California for a further two. Those honours which are particularly associated with sport in the United States, MVP and NSCAA All-American, ensured he would move on to the North American professional game in Major League Soccer with the Washington club, DC United, in 2001.Nelsen became club captain, defender of the year and was named on the MSL All-Star XI for both the 2003 and 2004 seasons All the time, his long-term ambitions lay in England. “It was always my top ambition to play in this country,” he said.

“In New Zealand everybody follows the Premiership, and it was my first option.” It was, unfortunately, an unrealisable option. Since New Zealand are not ranked in Fifa’s top 70 he could not obtain the necessary work permit visa, so football in America offered excellent experience instead.In the summer of 2004 Nelsen was invited for a trial at Blackburn and, after causing a flurry of concern at Ewood by stopping off en route to accept another invitation, a few days working out with Charlton Athletic, he arrived at his destiny. “He had promised to come to us and, thankfully, he kept his word,” said Hughes, who was massively impressed by his first view of the Nelsen Spirit.”By 10 minutes into training I knew he was better than what we already had.” Still, the visa was a problem, and Blackburn’s first work-permit application was turned down, only to be allowed on appeal, and Hughes had landed a top asset on a free transfer The manager has continued to be impressed “Ryan’s mentality and character are both strong. Every day he comes to work he wants to get better, and that attitude has spread through to the other top players here.”The admiration is mutual. Visibly cheered by the news that Blackburn have opened talks with Hughes over a contract extension, Nelsen said: “I can’t say enough about Mark Hughes or the coaches here, like Mark Bowen. They have put trust in me and I will try to repay them.”Modestly, Nelsen calls Blackburn’s decision to take him aboard (quickly expanded to a three-year contract) “a calculated gamble,” adding: “I knew I could succeed over here, but a lot of players have come over to the Premiership and never found their feet That’s why I thank Blackburn so much.

Maybe if I had been from Italy or Germany it would have been a bit easier, but I am from New Zealand, a country whose football reputation doesn’t carry much weight.”As he prepares to face Totten-ham’s array of striking stars (“Mido, Keane, Defoe, how many have they got?”) Nelsen knows that the folk back home will be watching. So is Ryan Nelsen a national hero nowadays?”We aren’t really great at putting people on pedestals, which I think is fantastic.” In that respect, Ryan Nelsen smiled, New Zealanders are very different from Australians.. Glenn Roeder has been known to keep the company of a bookmaker in his time. In his month on loan from Queen’s Park Rangers to the Magpies of Notts County, he spent his afternoons socialising with a team-mate who kept checking his wins and losses on the telephone to the betting shops he ran in two Nottinghamshire mining villages.

It is not certain whether Martin O’Neill still makes the odds, but he remains favourite to become the next manager of the Tyneside Magpies, at 10-11 with Ladbrokes yesterday. As for Roeder, he might insist he is strictly keeping the manager’s seat warm at St James’ but the betting on him is rapidly hotting up. Before kick-off yesterday, the caretaker’s odds had tumbled from 20-1 to 10-1 in less than a week. They seem certain to fall further after Roeder added a fifth win to a managerial record of six unbeaten matches.
This latest success came courtesy of goals by Nolberto Solano, Alan Shearer and Shola Ameobi and was just reward for a performance brimming with the kind of all-round organisation rarely seen from Newcastle during the managerial reign of Graeme Souness. It was not the best of days, then, for Sam Allardyce, the second favourite to O’Neill for both the England and Newcastle jobs.