How Martin reunion gave Fraser a new lease of life

Ryan Fraser’s story is unique. Making the long journey from the top of Britain to the bottom, leaving behind hometown club Aberdeen to join League One Bournemouth as a teenager, taking the seaside town he still calls home to dizzying new heights, the ups and downs of working under Eddie Howe at two very different clubs, and now his own south coast renaissance; his football career has been a captivating tale.

But actually the fascination around Fraser, a man whose complex reputation is at odds with his warm, low-maintenance personality, can be traced back to a time before football was even on his radar.

The diminutive winger grew up in the Middle East, living in Oman while his father worked on the oil rigs, earning a good salary to provide for his family.

“It was like a gated community,” he recalls. “They would work offshore, and the families would stay in little houses around English-speaking people, just for safety and for everyone to have a good time while their partners were out making money. It’s actually a really nice place, but I was a bit too young to learn the language.”

Football was not part of the culture, nor part of Fraser’s thinking until he moved home to Aberdeen, when it first became a “hobby” around the age of 14; remarkably late for a player who has since racked up more than 300 professional appearances and 26 Scotland caps before his 30th birthday.

“Not once did I ever want to be a footballer at a very young age,” he reveals. “To be honest, I didn’t really play football. I didn’t really watch football when I was younger.

“My dad had a little kickaround with me, but no one in my family were massive football fans. If you were to ask my dad what the offside rule was when I was starting to play football, he probably wouldn’t have been able to tell you.”

Fraser in action for Aberdeen, where he was thrust into the limelight at 16

Things changed when the Fraser family returned to their roots.

"I think it was just lucky that I joined a boys’ group and we were actually a decent team,” he says, modestly. “Aberdeen picked a lot of us up from that team; some of us made it and some of us didn’t.

“My dad used to take me to something called a ‘Brazilian Soccer School’ on Thursdays, but I would train with Aberdeen first, and then I’d have a Burger King in the middle, and then I would go and train at night as well!

“My dad thought, ‘he’s enjoying it, he’s never had a hobby before so let’s give this one a bash’. There was no pressure.”

It’s a far cry from tales of pushy parents reliving their own youth through their children. Fraser felt free of expectation; he didn’t carry the burden of feeling like he had to make it. After all, this was not a lifelong goal he was pursuing.

Yet he still found a way to live the dream. He was in the Aberdeen first team at 16 – only two years after he first started playing football regularly.

Having already lived on the other side of the world, albeit with his family, perhaps the 600-mile relocation to Bournemouth was less daunting, but Fraser was still only 18 at the time.

“I didn’t know how to cook, I didn’t really know what independence was – cleaning your own clothes, going to the shop and buying your own stuff – so it was different, but it was something that I just took in my stride,” he smiles.

“A lot of people raised their eyebrows when I went to League One with Bournemouth when I was playing every game for Aberdeen at such a young age, but – I don’t know if the Saints fans want to hear it – it was a good time in my career to join there. We did well for each other.”

It's 11 years since a teenage Ryan Fraser first arrived in Bournemouth

Again, the Scot is understated in his delivery. What Bournemouth achieved was nothing short of a footballing miracle.

When Fraser arrived, Eddie Howe had already led the Cherries from minus 17 points in League Two to League One promotion contenders. By the time he left, seven and a half years later, they had been a Premier League club for five seasons.

He fell in love with the south coast straightaway. Eleven years on, as he takes a stroll along Bournemouth beach on a sunny January afternoon, nothing’s changed.

“I probably know every grain of this sand off by heart,” he grins. “It’s just a nice place to come to spend your evenings, spend your days off. It’s what I like doing, walking the dogs and drinking coffee, so quite simple, but once you’ve got views like this, it’s very nice.

“Not once when I came down from Aberdeen would I think that when I finish football I’ll live down here for the rest of my life, but within a year or two that was the decision I made. I have family up in Aberdeen but I just love it down here so much, so when I finish football this will be where I live.”

The family love it, too. His parents ironically moved down while Fraser was plying his trade up in Newcastle, such was the impression it made on them during his Bournemouth spell, and his partner is from the area.

The conversation becomes more sensitive around Howe’s considerable influence on his career, but Fraser, much like a tough tackle from a full-back, does not shirk a question.

The current Newcastle boss was “a big factor” in attracting him to Bournemouth, and the pair were together throughout the winger’s long affiliation with the club, sharing two promotions and a highest-ever finish of ninth in the Premier League.

After contributing 21 goals in the top flight in 2018/19 (seven goals, 14 assists), his form dipped the following season and, with his contract expiring, Fraser opted against signing a new deal. Bournemouth were relegated at the end of the campaign.

Fraser made more than 200 appearances for Bournemouth before his 2020 departure

The pair were then reunited at St James’ Park 18 months later, and initially seemed to be on good terms, but Fraser admits, with tangible sadness, their relationship deteriorated.

“At the start of my Newcastle journey with Steve Bruce, it was tough,” he opens up. “I’m not going to speak badly of Steve Bruce, I just didn’t play and it didn’t work out. He’s still a nice guy, but it is what it is.

“Then Eddie came in and we started doing well together again. I started playing every game again, Newcastle were doing well, we went on a ten or 11-game unbeaten streak, the lads were fantastic, but then I wasn’t playing again.

“In football, you just want to play, or if you’re not playing you want to help the team in a certain way. It just came to an end. It’s hard to get into because there’s a lot that went on. Honestly, it’s tough to speak about.”

By the time Fraser departed for Saints on a season-long loan, late in the summer transfer window, he had not played for Newcastle’s first team in more than ten months. He was training with the club’s Under-21 squad.

Fraser kept his counsel, but that meant he arrived at St Mary’s with a tarnished reputation.

“From the Bournemouth situation, when I didn’t sign a deal with the club, people automatically think, ‘does he think he’s too big for Bournemouth?’ when that was never the case. That’s probably what the outside thought,” he reasons.

“Then obviously with the Eddie thing at the end, the media don’t know what’s happened so they couldn’t come out and say what’s happened, it was just that I was down in the Under-21s, so a lot of people just jump to things – they believe what they want to believe, because everyone’s got an opinion.”

There’s clearly still huge respect from Fraser towards Howe, his mentor for so much of his career. “He was unbelievable for me. I did well for him, I learned from him, so it’s sad that it’s ended but it has ended now. It’s something I’ll always cherish, the years we had.”

Fraser was eager to leave Newcastle for the chance to play regular football again

It’s unusual for a player with such vast experience to have played under so few managers, but Fraser needed a new boss to rediscover his love for the game he didn’t know he loved until late.

“The minute Russell phoned me, I pushed everything to get down here – not because I’m from down here, honestly, that was the last thing that was on my mind,” he insists. “It was all about playing football, all about getting promoted again, because I knew what it was like getting promoted from Bournemouth – it was an unbelievable feeling.”

Speaking in his first interview as a Saint on the day he signed, Fraser said: “I’m just delighted to come and play football again, put the past behind me, the club and the manager, and start again.

“I think everyone’s got something to prove, it doesn’t matter where you are in your career. I’m going to give 110 per cent, and try to win people over that might have their doubts. I think if you ask fanbases, I do give my all, and that’s what I’ll be doing here.”

And so it’s proved. Wee Man’s impact has been seismic. Despite starting only five league games all season, he has been a key figure throughout Saints’ unbeaten run, which currently stands at 20 games in all competitions – one short of setting a new record since the club joined the Football League more than 100 years ago.

“I think everyone can see how much I’m enjoying it – it’s not a front that I’m putting on. I don’t think I’ve loved football this much for a long, long, long time,” he says.

“It’s a nice feeling, because sometimes you get lost in football. You don’t enjoy it as much – it’s all about win, win, win, win, win. It is still about winning, but having that enjoyment of coming in every day, getting up and thinking, ‘I can’t wait to train today’.

“It’s a nice feeling, and it just makes me and my family happy – for them as well, because they haven’t seen that in a long time.

“The manager has mentioned it (the record), but as players we know the history – you can’t take that away from anyone.

“To go 20 [league] games, if we can, unbeaten, in any league is some achievement. I thought when we went ten or 11 at Newcastle it was unbelievable, thinking ‘that’ll be tough to top’, but to do nearly 20 games is an unbelievable feeling and the lads know it.

“We want to make history for Southampton – to do that is a massive achievement, and anyone should be proud of it.”

Fraser’s first Saints goal came in the fourth game of this potentially history-making sequence – a stoppage-time winner at Hull back in October.

“At the start it was so hard,” he recalls. “In the first few games I probably wasn’t ready, but then obviously with time and fitness and getting to know the game again, obviously getting that goal was the best feeling.

“The fans going mental, winning it in such a late minute that you know there’s no coming back from it for the other team, it’s three points, the best feeling.

“The changing room after when you go in, you’ve seen the fans’ reaction and the boys are talking about it; ‘how good was that?’, ‘how good was that fan’s reaction?’, stuff like that. It was so good.”

Two weeks later, he repeated the feat at Millwall where the travelling Saints fans, including former striker James Beattie in the away end at The Den, had a new hero. “To see legends like that celebrate your goal was special,” he smiles.

Whilst the goals and the nearby beaches helped Fraser settle in, it is the influence of manager Martin that he points to – the man he played alongside for Scotland at opposing ends of their international careers and still calls a “mate”.

“My first Scotland call-up he was obviously there being the more experienced pro who took me under his wing a little bit to help me out, show me around, and we always kept in contact. I’ve got some stories I probably can’t tell of Scotland trips!” he laughs.

“For this club, for everyone, I just think first and foremost he’s such a good guy, a mate, but as a manager he is unbelievable.

“Some of his philosophy I’d never even thought of before, so to see that and learn from it is unbelievable. It takes time to adapt to his way of playing, but he’s a top, top manager and he’ll take Southampton to where they want to go.

“In the past, some of the managers I’ve had you just speak about football and that is it. In the changing room, in the canteen, you don’t speak to them, but with this manager he’s always there, he’s always involved, always trying to make people happy, smile, and I think everyone can see that.

“That’s why we’re doing so well. I just think he’s the perfect guy for this football club and to take us where we want to be.”

For all his impact off the bench, including two goals and an assist in the Boxing Day mauling of Martin’s former club, Swansea, Fraser still finds himself pushing for a starting berth.

The recent FA Cup win over Walsall did afford the in-form winger a rare chance to impress over 90 minutes, as Martin made wholesale changes, and his former teammate responded with another two-goal, one-assist salvo.

With Samuel Edozie and Kamaldeen Sulemana currently nursing injuries, Fraser scored again as Saints equalled the unbeaten record against Sheffield Wednesday last time out, and may well have played his way into the side at last – even if he remains philosophical about his chances.

“Honestly, we have a laugh about it because it’s working, me coming off the bench,” he shrugs. “Everyone’s got their own roles to play and whatever that role is that helps the team and benefits the team, that’s all that matters.

“I started the game against Walsall at home and I enjoyed it, but if I’m back on the bench this weekend then I’m back on the bench. I’ll try to help the team as much as I can, come on, try and score, try and give some energy.”

Fraser can afford a chuckle about the reputation that goes before him, but it’s clear his relationship with Martin, the manager who trusted him in his time of need, stretches beyond football.

“We’ll never fight, honestly, we’ll never fight!” he laughs. “We’ve got that relationship where he knows what’s best for the team and I want what’s best for the team, and I think it works.

“I think if you ask people within football, I’d like to think they say I’m a nice person! I don’t know what it is, maybe people still don’t think I’m a nice person, but as long as my family and the people at Southampton think I’m nice and genuine, that’s all that matters to me.

“I’ve got two objectives,” he signs off. “The big one is to get promoted, and the second one is to sign here for as long as I can.”