HOWE ABOUT THAT!
Fraser credits tough love from Bournemouth boss as catalyst for him taking a great leap forward on the international stage
ON the journey to Hampden to face Malta on Monday evening, Ryan Fraser will draw inspiration from messages sent from opposite ends of the country and with wildly contrasting tones. The comedy comes from Cove. Tartan Army pals with whom he used to travel to see Scotland will ping boozedup images of coach chaos the likes of which he well recalls from being the only teetotal teenager abroad.
From sobriety on the south coast, there will be words of support scripted by the man whose supervision saved Fraser’s career then set it haring on its present path to terrorising English Premier League defences.
To both Eddie Howe and the loyal inhabitants of this supporters’ bus from Aberdeenshire, Fraser can be claimed as one of their great success stories.
Mates of old and boys’ club buddies who will ‘Snapchat’ the story of the road south to him will, however, concede it’s the guiding hand of a future England manager that made the man they now see in Scotland colours.
The 23-year-old shakes his head and squirms at the thought he once believed he knew better than Howe. That he once could not comprehend why one of Britain’s brightest young bosses was berating him.
It’s called tough love and it was pushing Fraser, signed for a snip in January 2013 from Aberdeen when Bournemouth were seventh in League
One, back to his family to question what was going on.
‘I didn’t really know how to take it when Eddie was getting on at me,’ admits Fraser. ‘I’d phone my dad and say: “He’s getting at me again. What do I do?” My dad was good with me.
‘He’d say: “You need to stop moaning and realise what you have”. At that age, you take it for granted a bit. I now realise he was giving me the best opportunity. He’s not saying things in training to annoy me.
‘He was trying to improve me so that I don’t make the same mistakes. The manager probably believes in me more than I believe in myself sometimes. When my confidence is down, he knows how to switch it.
‘The next thing, my first touch will be going forward and I’ll think: “How has he done that?” But he gets into your mind and he’s very good at it. Everyone says we are like a father and son.
‘I have dinners with him and we have been together for over four years now. It’s not always good times. There are going to be bad times with arguments. But we are very close.
‘He is very good with young players, he will be England manager one day. But when I was younger, I did tend to take it the wrong way. I’d think: “I’m right here and he’s wrong”. ‘Then I look back and think: “What was I talking about? I’m an idiot”.’ Looking foolish now, frequently, are high-calibre defensive opponents of Fraser, whose life changed forever one Sunday afternoon last December. On he came as a 55th-minute sub against Liverpool to inspire Bournemouth to a 4-3 comeback victory thanks to winning a penalty, scoring his first Premier League goal then providing the equalising assist.
From unknown to the talk of the top flight in a second-half flash, Fraser’s overnight arrival was four years in the making with Howe behind the scenes.
A fondness for pizza and ice cream was weeded out, time with a
psychologist spent and a loan at Ipswich in 2015/16 primed for the toughest ask yet — breaking into Howe’s high-energy side at the top level.
And had he not responded to Howe’s demands Fraser suspects that making a senior Scotland debut against England in June would not have figured on his career curve
‘I wouldn’t just have found myself out the team, I probably wouldn’t have got another contract and might have had to come back to Scotland,’ said Fraser of his Bournemouth boot camp days.
Fraser was trusted to rack up, 29 Bournemouth appearances last season the smallest player in the division at 5ft 4in and one of the fastest.
Themanager probably believes in me more than I believe in myself
The genes from his former Scotland sprinter mother Debbie have served him well. But that one trick does not extend an effective career for long in the league these days.
So he is constantly being dared by Howe to become an all-round menace to be feared by some of the megaathletes in the Premier League.
‘I used to rely on my pace more than I do now,’ he stressed. ‘I feel that before I maybe didn’t have the football knowledge. I’d get out of certain situations just by running fast. But in the Premier League everyone is fast.
‘Even centre-backs are rapid. You can’t just beat people with pace, you need to beat them with your football mind. It’s helped me get in different positions, picking up little bits of space.
‘The manager is challenging me all the time. I think he thinks that if I just keep playing right midfield, I’ll get comfortable. But if I can play in different positions there’s more of a chance I’ll get a game. Or if he needs to throw someone on, say at No10, he knows I can do a job for him.
‘Pre-season I played right-back in my first game, No10 in the second, right midfield in the third, left midfield in the fourth.
‘I try to look at everyone else’s positions when we do game plays in training, because that’s how you get better. I only felt a little out my depth at right-back. When I’m going forward I’m okay. ‘But when you get someone running at you, you’re like: “Oh s***!” He puts me there because it reverses things. I have to start thinking what I would do if it was me I was playing against.
‘He’s smart, Eddie. He knows I don’t want to play right-back, but in the long run it will help me learn.’
Pure pace did for one of the league’s speed merchants, Hector Bellerin, when Fraser scored in another thriller — a 3-3 draw against Arsenal. The anticipation, it seems, was huge inside the Bournemouth camp. ‘My team-mates spoke about it being a good match-up beforehand as the gaffer put me on the left,’ he revealed. ‘I got a ball in behind and it was a pure foot race between us. Bellerin is rapid, but I won the race.
‘I managed to get in front of him and scored. Also, my low centre of gravity helped me win quite a lot of penalties last season. I’d get the extra yard and, if they just nudged me, I’d go down. ‘Sometimes I do go down too easily, but if you get the chance to win a penalty, you want to do it.’
Now comes handling the expectation and he’s off to a fine start. Fraser didn’t feature against Manchester City because of a formation reshuffle but he played in the first two league fixtures and scored in the Carabao Cup.
He said: ‘Some might say: “Was that season a one-off?” So I need to back that up. That’s the hardest thing. It’s a case of: “He did this last season, what can he do this season?”
‘Last season, I went into games and nobody knew who I was. It was the same when I got called up to the Scotland squad. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fans up here didn’t know me.
‘We see it every year. I’m sure clubs try to replace you with better players, but you just need to back yourself to be better than them. Just because they’re coming in for big money doesn’t mean they’re better.
‘They need to get used to surroundings I’m already used to. I’ve been there four years now and I love it. The beaches are great, it’s like living in France.
‘I know the ins and outs — and know what the manager wants.’