Nelsen on Tugay, Kean and voicemail that ended Rovers career

In football, or indeed in life, you don't get much for free anymore. You will certainly struggle to find a stalwart defender, a leader, a captain and an unbelievably humble man going for nothing. You see where this is going, don't you? 

Tracking down Ryan Nelsen, perhaps Blackburn Rovers' biggest bargain of the 21st century, hasn't been the easiest task. He lives on the other side of the world in Washington DC, now a proud CEO and businessman. As he puts it, he's 'finally putting in some hard graft like everyone else'. 

Finally, contact was made. 'Sure, no problem', the gracious reply. As we chat away on Zoom, he's relaxed, open, honest and incredibly engaging, just as anyone who knew him would describe him throughout his career. There is an incredible modesty about him, despite being the modern-day Rovers legend that he is. 

READ MORE: How Brereton & Dack have fared after Blackburn Rovers exits

His passion for Rovers, even after all these years, comes flooding through. He recalls the finer details as if they were only weeks ago, starting with his move to England. 

Let's be fair, very few people knew who Nelsen was as he arrived at Ewood Park on trial in 2005. He was hardly a household name despite his success with D.C United in Major League Soccer. 

Mark Hughes took a chance and very quickly, Nelsen was on the path to Lancashire immortality. There weren't floods of offers, Rovers was his chance to make it in the Premier League. 

"It was the only offer I had really," he tells The Lancashire Telegraph. "Mark Hughes got me in for a trial for one week and that turned into two and three weeks. I found out later he only did that so I wouldn't go anywhere else! 

"It was torturous for me but eventually they said they wanted to offer me a short-term deal. My first thoughts were that I would get found out. 

"He gave me an opportunity I don't think others would because of the Welsh, small cousin to England, he grew up similar to me as a New Zealander playing in America. I didn't have much reputation but he didn't care about that kind of stuff.  

"I am indebted to him in all honesty, he wasn't scared to make decisions at the time. He backed himself and it showed in the performances people gave him. He made the big calls." 

Nelsen fitted in immediately. A new three-year deal lay in wait six months down the line and he was soon club captain. Rovers finished in the UEFA Cup places in his first full season at the club. 

The Premier League was awash with talent. After arriving in England, Nelsen was 'waiting to get found out' but he more than held his own. The only players that made him reassess were Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, still at their peak a few years after the Invincibles. 

"I just remember them beating me and beating me again and coming back. They were toying with me," he laughs, able to make fun of the moments now. "I look in the mirror thinking 'Am I up for this? Is this what I should be doing'. Then you understand they are the greatest players of all time." 

Aside from a few tough games against the Gunners, Rovers were flying. The team was littered with talent and held together by Hughes, who had a firm grip on the whip. He was able to bring out the very best of the individuals without compromising the harmony of the team. 

The landscape of elite sport has changed so much in the 18 years since Nelsen signed. Everything is bigger, more expensive and more professional. 

But perhaps more sterile too? Have the enhancements in academy football have created a conveyor belt of technically gifted but non-unique characters? That's the view of Nelsen anyway, as we recall his fondest memories from the dressing room. 

Blackburn fans won't mind a trip down memory lane when you mention the likes of Chris Samba, Tugay, Morten Gamst Pederson, Benni McCarthy. That was some dressing room for Nelsen to slip so seamlessly into. Seven games in, he was handed the armband for the first time. 

Take Tugay, perhaps the most popular player to have graced Ewood Park this century. A maverick, an artist. The ultimate professional? Well, a half-time cigarette break at St Andrew's would suggest otherwise. 

"Sometimes you do look back and think 'what a team that was', Nelsen says, reflecting on the players he rubbed shoulders with. "You don't realise it when you're in the moment and how good it was. We had so many different personalities, they don't make those anymore. 

"The club was run so well, the management was great, everyone was on board. It was one of those really good times in Blackburn Rovers' history. It's not until you look back later that was it was something special. 

"I am not promoting smoking at half-time or taking fans out of bathroom vents so you don't get caught but he wouldn't have been the same player if he was born today. They would have trained the personality out of him as a young player. You can't teach the stuff he did, it's a God-given talent, his characteristics on the field mirrored off the field in this beautiful cocktail of brilliance and creativity. It's stuff you can't teach. 

"I think maybe today that would have been coached out which is such a shame. I do feel the modern-day players are amazing athletes, technically amazing but they're very similar. It's like they are thrown out of a factory and cloned. It's a shame we don't have those personalities anymore." 

Eventually, that Rovers team began to break up. Hughes left for Manchester City and Paul Ince lasted just six months as his replacement. "We dropped our standards in all honesty if I look back," Nelsen admits. "Mark ran a tight ship and Paul wanted to change that. Training fell, the habits dropped. I'm talking a couple of percent and it adds up. The Premier League is brutal, you have to increase one or two per cent not decrease. The players dropped their standards which can happen." 

Sam Allardyce soon followed: "I loved Big Sam because you knew what you got with him," Nelsen explains. You expect a certain way, a certain standard. He was extremely tough on the players, if you don't do your job, you hear about it. 

"It was pretty cut and dry, crystal clear in what he wanted you to do and made it simple. I liked that clarity of thought. People will say you need to play out the back or play better but he wanted to win. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, that's what everyone wants. He got that back into us. 'Come on, stop messing around, we have to win football games'. That clarity and simplicity, it sounds so easy but you can overcomplicate things and he brought it back to Earth." 

It wasn't 70 per cent possession or Gegenpressing but it brought results. Rovers were fighting beyond their means in the Premier League and continued to keep their heads above water.  

It was a close shave in Allardyce's first year after the disastrous start under Ince but Rovers began to climb the ladder again. They were closer to the top half of the table than the bottom three as he finished the 2009/10 season in tenth with a final-day win over Aston Villa. That turned out to be the beginning of the end for 'Big Sam' and six months later, he was replaced by Steve Kean with Rovers in 13th. 

How does a departure like that impact the dressing room? Stop moaning and get on with it was the view of Nelsen. There was no mutiny from the players, even if the decision was puzzling. 

"That was another decision that felt like a strange one," he admits. "Sam left when we were ninth, tenth (sic). You have to get on with it, whether it's political or down to style of play, whoever made those decisions, you have to trust that it was for the right reasons for the club.  

"Whether they turn out right or wrong, it doesn't matter. Hindsight is very easy to say 'we shouldn't have done for that'. The most important thing is, are they doing the best for the club? Are they trying to put the fans and the club first? You take the good with the bad.  

"In those positions, you take responsibility and those decisions go wrong, I don't like blaming people. People won't take decisions and risks if you just batter them. We had to make the most of it, not complain or moan, you're paid to play. It was an interesting moment and the hierarchy of the club could answer it better than I can." 

Things at Rovers began to slide. As they experienced with Ince, one bad managerial change, a few under-par windows and you soon slip down the food chain. Well, Blackburn Rovers were falling under Kean, despite narrowly escaping the drop at Molineux, racing into a three-goal lead only to anxiously see out a 3-2 win with Wolves also safe. 

Nelsen wasn't involved that day, though he can recount the events as if he kicked every ball. "We were in a good spot and those small changes can be very positive or negative. That Wolves game, I was injured and then we were 3-0 up, it was one of the relieved feelings and then it was 3-2. A draw would've got us through, that was pretty uncomfortable." 

The ageing but still influential defender was on the sidelines with a fractured femur, sustained in a tackle with Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge. Aged 33, he was on the sidelines for seven months as he tried to recover from a serious injury. 

Little did Nelsen know, he'd not play for Rovers again. After seven years at the club, he was asked to pack up his things and leave. No goodbyes, no thank yous. It was a bitter end that will still leave a sour taste in the mouth of Rovers fans reading this. 

Nelsen though is calm and measured. Things didn't end how he wanted but there is no animosity, not even towards the decision-makers at the time. He remembers it all vividly though. 

"I played at Huddersfield in a reserve game, we won 4-2 and I scored two goals which was rare. I played 80 minutes, it's like the 27th of January and I felt great. I saw Steve Kean after and I said I'm fit, I'm available and I am ready for selection if you need me," he recounts. "Finally. I was having a kick around after the game so it was about an hour and a half after the game, I went into the locker room and I had two messages on my phone. 

"One was from the CEO at Rovers and said 'Ryan, we don't want you anymore. We have negotiated a settlement for you but you have to pack up and leave now'. I don't think it would've looked good for them if I'd said goodbye to the fans, they'd have asked why I was going.  

"They had done a few things. I had a contingency in my contract on my knee that if I missed six weeks of training they could cut my wages in half. That same CEO came down to the medical department and said Ryan, it's been six weeks, we will cut your wages 50 per cent now. Unfortunately, he'd got it wrong and it was my other knee that had the clause in it.  

"Once you hear that, I'd been there for nearly nine years, I was a free and captain for a long time, it hurts a bit. I got the phone call and he didn't want any fallback from fans, staff, or players. If that's the decision, I respect it so I left.  

"The second message was from Harry Redknapp. 'Ryan, I hear you're leaving Blackburn, do you want to come to Tottenham?' I have no idea how he found that out. It was a very weird moment, I was told to pack my bags at Blackburn and straight on the train down to Tottenham. It was strange. 

"I have no animosity to anyone at the club or anything. I come back to it, he was trying to help the club, he wanted an older player and that was the best decision for the club at the time in his eyes. If you worry about those things, you become an angry person.  

"I'd have played for Blackburn for free for all those years. So to be paid to play for that club for that amount of years, I was so lucky, it was the greatest time of my life. I was so happy. Could it have ended differently? Absolutely. I'd have loved to have done it differently but I respect the management of the club at the time." 

Nelsen hasn't been back to Ewood Park. Not through hard feelings or a lack of desire but circumstance. He's now CEO of ROAR, a sports marketing company which Nelsen founded. Those memories of playing in a Rovers shirt are not distant despite his new-found career. 

If there's one thing to yield from this interview, it's the passion Nelsen still holds for Rovers. He's visibly moved when speaking about being voted in Rovers fans' 'Best XI' with team-mates of his like David Dunn, Brad Friedel, Pedersen and club legends such as Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton and his defensive partner, Colin Hendry. 

"I would've played for free. I'd have paid to play," he insists. "To have that amount of time playing for them in that era with those players and the fans. So many good people there, a great family club. It was incredible.  

"I look back with such fondness, I get a bit teary-eyed when you hear of best 11s. No way could I have fathomed that considering how many good players I played with at Blackburn and previous and after. I felt like I'd get found out, the one regret is that I haven't been back.  

"I do one day want to go back and hug everyone still there that I haven't seen in so long."