Reiss Nelson’s Feyenoord transfer gamble is finally paying off, some eight months after joining the Dutch giants on a season long loan.
The Arsenal academy graduate will have just one year remaining on his Gunners contract this summer and knows this season could make or break his chances in north London. His arrival was deemed as one of Feyenoord’s transfer priorities last August, but he was made to wait for his time to shine.
Mikel Arteta will be keeping a close eye on Nelson’s exploits between now and the end of the season, particularly with Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette set to depart on free transfers at the end of the season. The Gunners boss has shown he is more than willing to give youth players a chance and could yet give Nelson a second crack at breaking into the senior set up.
And having impressed with Hoffenheim in 2018/19, it was anticipated that he would have a similar impact in Eredivisie. However, manager Arne Slot has been highly critical of the 22-year-old, first criticising his fitness levels, before taking aim at his production.
“Nelson had participated in almost all training sessions at Arsenal, but he experiences the training here as a bit more intense,” Slot said last year. "He suffered an overuse injury and so he is not here.”
Speaking in January, Slot cast further doubt on Nelson’s future at De Kuip: “The talent is there, but what Reiss still struggles with is creating big chances for himself or his teammates.
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“You see a lot of skill, speed and agility, but the final push is still missing. Then it’s just not a finish or just not an assist. The most difficult thing in football is to get the best out of your play. And if you play for Feyenoord, where you often end up in a promising position as a winger, you expect a higher yield.
“I don’t think he is much of a goal scorer anyway. I don’t see him doing that much in training either, but at Hoffenheim, in the Bundesliga, he scored seven goals. That’s excellent.”
Nelson didn’t start a game for Feyenoord until December, but since the turn of the year has become a regular under Slot, with reports suggesting he would now like to keep him for another season.
And following on from an assist in the first leg of his side’s Europa Conference League quarter final, the versatile forward put in his best performance in a Feyenoord shirt. Against Heracles, Nelson found the net once and created two more as they ran out 4-1 winners.
His performance didn’t go unnoticed as well, with two prominent pundits in the country, heaping praise on him: “I thought he played pretty well,” former Netherlands international Theo Janssen told Feyenoord Pings via Sport Witness.
“Of course, I’ve seen him before, but then he didn’t really stand out to me. Now I really started paying attention to him. I think he plays really simple, looks for the combination a lot, is calm on the ball, plays a lot between the lines, and then he is also pretty good in his passing. A fine player, actually.”
Former Nottingham Forest and Feyenoord striker Pierre van Hooijdonk added: “Especially also because of his speed, because you have an extra weapon that you can get behind that last line, and he fills in that nicely. Only: he has to start scoring goals and giving assists.”
