What Happened To Ryan Fraser: How The Scottish Winger Made A Whole Town Hate Him

Five years ago, Ryan Fraser was one of the hottest players outside of the big six in the Premier League. But a lot can change in football in five years. Now he is a part of one of the worst Premier League sides in history, and he can’t even buy a start for them. What’s more, almost every fan base of each of the teams he has played for dislike him, and while his contract with Southampton has another whole year left on it, I’d be shocked if he played more than five times for them next season.

A Star With Bournemouth

Ryan Fraser joined Bournemouth shortly before his 20th birthday back in 2013, when the south coast side were in League One. He only played five matches in his first half a season, but featured more once the side were promoted to the Championship. Fraser scored just four times across the two Championship campaigns, as he played mainly as a backup to Bournemouth legend Marc Pugh. With Max Gradel joining the club following their promotion to the Premier League, Fraser joined Ipswich on loan for the 2015/16 season.

He wasn’t a regular starter at Ipswich in the Championship, but he was able to make his mark on their season, even with two separate injuries that saw him miss 25 league matches. He scored four goals and registered five assists in just 18 league games as The Tractor Boys just missed out on a playoff spot.

Man of the Match, @afcbournemouth's Ryan Fraser
On as sub after 55 mins
2 attempts, 2 on target
1 goal
1 assist
Won a penalty
22 touches#PL pic.twitter.com/XYkQa1evDL

— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 4, 2016

The following two seasons, he managed to slowly work his way into the Bournemouth starting XI, with Pugh’s playing career slowly coming to an end. He scored his first Premier League goal in a dramatic 4-3 win over Liverpool in the 2016/17 season. He came off the bench in that game with Bournemouth 2-0 down and completely changed the game. Not only did he score, but he also won a penalty and registered an assist, all in the second half. Despite his performances, Fraser was rarely playing at full fitness in the 2016/17 and 2107/18 seasons because of a recurring hamstring injury.

In the following season, Fraser played in every league game and was one of the best talents outside of the top six. The Scottish winger registered 21 goal involvements in the 2018/19 league season, with 14 assists. This put him second in the assists chart, just one behind Eden Hazard at Chelsea. Even in games where he didn’t register an involvement, he was still Bournemouth’s most exciting player. The relationship that he had with striker Callum Wilson allowed the Englishman to score 14 league goal that campaign and saw both of them linked with moves away.

2019/20 Controversy

It was during the 2019/20 season, when Bournemouth fans turned on Fraser, but they had a good reason to do so. The Scottish winger’s form from last season had disappeared, but even in January 2020, he was still being linked with a move away. Rumours that Arsenal were interested affected his performances and by the time the COVID pandemic suspended the season, he had only registered five goal involvements.

Looks like we avoided a bullet with Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth Echo)

He said: "The worst thing is that I didn’t want them to go down – it would have been a lot easier if they had stayed up. With me playing, without being big-headed, I think I would have helped massively.

— Chris Waters (@Clapham_Grand) September 12, 2020

Fraser’s contract was due to expire at the end of June 2020. He was asked to sign a short term deal so that he could finish the rest of the season with the Cherries as games started up again, however he refused, as he was hoping to get a big move and didn’t want to risk injury. At this time Bournemouth were 18th in the league, but had a few winnable games to go, while Aston Villa were not too far ahead of them in the table. Unfortunately for Cherries fans, the club would fall to relegation that season, just a single point behind Villa, and Fraser would become the most hated player in the club’s history. He did manage to get a Premier League move following the conclusion of the season, but it was to Newcastle, who at the time were nowhere near where they are now.

Fraser’s Decline

At Newcastle, Fraser did not manage to return to his 2018/19 self, and injuries started to take their toll once again. In his first season at the club, he played just 18 league matches and didn’t manage to find the back of the net once. He did manage three assists, but they weren’t enough to impress Newcastle fans. The following season was a little better for Fraser, but it saw Eddie Howe come in as manager halfway through and the former Bournemouth coach had not forgotten Fraser’s attitude at the club during the COVID Pandemic.

In the 2022/23 season, Fraser was frozen out of the Newcastle team, featuring just eight times in the league and being absent from the matchday squad in 20 of the final 22 games of the season. One of those was away at Bournemouth, where he sat on the bench for the full 90 minutes. Howe probably had no intention of playing him in that match, and Fraser probably had no desire to play in front of such a hostile crowd.

Southampton Failure

Fraser made the step down into the Championship last season, where he played for Southampton on loan from Newcastle. He found a little bit of success at that level, scoring six times and registering two assists in the league. Southampton won promotion via the playoffs last year, but this year have been incredibly bad in the top flight. They have already been relegated with seven games still to play, and could still end on fewer points than the Derby team from 2007/08 that ended the season with 11.

BREAKING: Southampton have signed Ryan Fraser on a season-long loan from Newcastle 🔴⚪ pic.twitter.com/lPx6P7Kcao

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 25, 2023

It has been a really awful season for Fraser, who has played just two minutes of Premier League football since the 5th of December, and started the season by getting dragged at half time when 3-0 down to Bournemouth. In that match former teammate Lewis Cook crunched into him within 10 minutes, showing clearly how he felt about the Scotsman. Fraser has been injured since the beginning of February and doesn’t look like he will return to the Southampton squad anytime soon, so they could cash in during the summer and sell him, although I doubt there will be many who want him.