Soccer: Nelsen happy not to rove

Ryan Nelsen

Dave Dobbyn wrote a song about it, Team New Zealand adopted it as their theme and now Ryan Nelsen is applying it to his professional footballing career.

Nelsen remained loyal as other Premiership clubs like Everton and Birmingham City came courting towards the end of last season after the All Whites skipper made an immediate impression in his first season with Blackburn. Even Scotland's Glasgow Rangers were reportedly circling. Loyalty is not something found in abundance in the English league, where money talks and players walk.

"They took a punt with me which I don't think many other clubs would have done because of where I was from and my lack of experience in the Premiership," Nelsen said from the Blackburn training ground. "They looked past that and gave me a chance, so when they offered me a new contract I was really happy to re-sign. There was interest [from other clubs] but I was really only interested in re-signing for Blackburn."

The 27-year-old centre back signed a new and improved three-year deal last month that sees him take home about 16,000 [$41,000] a week after Blackburn had pleaded its case to allow Nelsen to gain a work permit.

It has been a whirlwind eight months for the Cantabrian since joining Rovers on a free transfer in January. Only during a summer holiday to the Greek Islands (it's what Premiership players do, you see) was he able to take stock of what he has achieved.

Once seen for his novelty value considering only two New Zealanders had played in the Premiership previously, Nelsen is now viewed as "any old Premiership player" - just the way he likes it.

As just another player, it means he is treated in the same way by the scandal-hungry UK media and is mindful of what he says, particularly with regard to bigger clubs chasing his services.

"If I said I would love to play for a big club, the papers here would take that and kill me," he explained. "They've already killed me over a couple of things so I have to watch what I say. I could quote something in the Ashburton Guardian and The Sun over here would pick it up."

In many ways, Nelsen plays in much the same way The Sun operates - it's difficult to get anything past him. After shoring up a leaky Blackburn defence last season, and helping them progress to the FA Cup semifinal, the challenge now is for him to pick up where he left off.

That hit something of a snag a fortnight ago when he picked up a knee injury that probably kept him out of Blackburn's season opener at West Ham this morning. He expects to be fully fit for next week's visit of Fulham.

"I think, realistically, a top-10 finish would be great and we hope that we might even be able to push on from there [into a UEFA Cup spot]," he said. "We got a reputation as being a tough team to beat and now we've added a couple of very good strikers in Craig Bellamy and Shefki Kuqi. Now we have some firepower up front."

Blackburn's pre-season form has certainly been encouraging with wins over the likes of Real Mallorca, when Nelsen scored his first goal for the club, and Espanyol. The club's loyal fans might be expecting big things this season, just like one of their loyal players.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY