Leicester City youngster Ben Nelson has drawn loan interest but manager Enzo Maresca wanted to keep the defender to work closely on his development, as per The Athletic.
Leicester City have seen a number of players come through their youth ranks to break into the first-team. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Hamza Choudhury are the headline names of the current squad, and there’s some eye-catching hopefuls emerging too.
Among them is centre-back Ben Nelson, who has now played six times for the Foxes across all competitions this season. He’d been a regular for the U21s while also spending time on loan further down the EFL with Rochdale and Doncaster Rovers.
The 19-year-old has now come off the bench in the last two Championship games while playing the full 90 minutes against both Millwall and Birmingham City in the FA Cup too.
Now, The Athletic has shared that the Leicester City has been drawing loan interest from elsewhere. However, manager Maresca resisted the chance to send him out again, preferring to work on his development closely.
You could certainly make a case for loaning Nelson out again. Playing senior football week in, week out in League One or League Two could really aid his development, building his experience of senior football before returning to Leicester City
However, with Maresca clearly a big admirer of his talents, there are big benefits to him remaining with the squad. The Italian can carefully develop him into his ideal centre-back and with some experienced players with strong pedigree around him, there’s some fantastic pros for Nelson to learn from too.
Tasting action at Championship level may well prepare him better for a sooner step up to a high level too. Nelson’s minutes have picked up in the New Year, and he’ll be hoping that continues over the remainder of the campaign.
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