Over the last few days Ryan Fraser has emerged as a summer transfer candidate for Arsenal.
The 25 year is having a fine season with Bournemouth, and his future is in some doubt as his contract expires in 2020, and with just a year left then the Cherries face making a difficult decision this summer.
Can they hang onto a player and hope they can convince him to sign, or do they sell and ensure they receive a transfer fee which they can reinvest? For a club like that, the latter option is the only sensible one – and Arsenal have shown the folly of the first course of action as we’re going to lose Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey for free this summer.
The Scottish international was asked about the links to the Gunners and admitted he was flattered.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s very nice. It means you are are doing something right,” he said.
“They are a huge club, a massive club. When you see your name thrown around you always think to yourself that you are a Bournemouth player and you try to do well.
“I’m not going to lie, you do feel good, especially when it’s a massive club.”
Only Eden Hazard and Christian Eriksen have more Premier League assists this season, and he’s added 6 goals along the way too. Whether he’s quite got the quality to step up remains to be seen, but it does seem he’s a potential candidate for our summer transfer business.
His former club, Aberdeen, would be due a big sell-on fee if the move did go through.
We’re not sure about this, so we’re hedging our bets with 6 on the Poo-O-Meter.
He’s coming home, he’s coming home….
As a Scottish Gooner, I would love this to happen.
He has had a good season and I would say he is a slight upgrade to Iwobi.
I guess that’s subjective but if you’re looking purely at goals and assists then he’s definitely more productive than iwobi.
I like Fraser, he reminds me a bit of Alexis Sanchez in the sense that he’s always giving 100%, presses well in attack and often gets back to help the defense. Considering we’re so short on wingers, I’d be happy if we could get him for under £30m.
Excuse my ignorance but would he fall under the category of homegrown or did he at least come up the youth ranks at an English club?
I’m pretty sure any British player is homegrown. Like Aaron Ramsey, for example
Id he is out of contract next year, then hopefully we can get him for a lot less than 30M
I actually don’t think Iwobi is as terrible as some do. He has his moments, but he seems to choose the wrong option far too many times.
Ramsey counts because he played for a team in the English league system for 3 years before the age of 21. It’s got nothing to do with where they’re from – Bellerin counts as home-grown, as does Martinez and as did Szczesny (which is another reason why I couldn’t understand the decision to keep Ospina and let him go)
I would say a massive upgrade
I don’t think he’d be a ‘massive’ upgrade on Iwobi. Iwobi is a homegrown player who’s been at the club since he was 6. His passing stats are already exceptional for a player in his age group, and at 22 he’s still developing his game. Where was Fraser at 22? Playing for Ipswich. Fraser might be having a *better season*. But he is not a *better player*. His teammate Joshua King is probably the best player at Bournemouth. A massive Iwobi upgrade is someone like Nabil Fekir. Until we get someone of his talent in, maybe we could appreciate one… Read more »
Sorry but he’s terrible and a passing rate of 76.4% isn’t exceptional regardless of age, Martial’s rate is 80.3% and Leroy Sane is 84.9%, and they both score and assist at a far greater rate.
Having 4 premier league assist whilst playing alongside Lacazette and Aubameyang marks him down as rank average and it’s quite clear by the transfer leaks that a replacement is a matter of priority.
Not a particularly glamorous link but a decent player in a relatively poor team and at an age where he could step up, not dissimilar to Robertson at Liverpool.
Here’s hoping
Robertson definitely the LB of the season. Nobody else comes to mind. Maybe Digne, but again no one else in the top 6 teams.
Why not. Decent player with Premier League experience. Aren’t these the sort of players that won us the league in the late 80’s and early 90’s? Dixon, Smith, Winterburn, Richardson etc …
Yeap its just that the league has changed since then quite significantly. Not sure if the same magic formula would be still fit for use today.
Liverpool has mane, van dijk, loven, robertson, wijnaldum, kalpana, shakiri and they are not doing so bad…
Lovren, Lallana, Shaqiri….damn autocorrect
From Lallana to Kalpana ?
I’m sure Kalpana is just a summer target from Southampton…(aka Liverpool, jr)
Yeap, and all of them are typical English players in the mould of Dixon and Winturburn?;)
Kalpana is having a poor season, don’t even remember seeing him on the pitch.
Disappears in all the big games. Never tracks back.
The league may have changed, but he’s playing now, not then. At the end of the day he’s racked up those stats playing against the same teams we have to.
He’s homegrown talent something we’ll need to address this summer after Dat guy and rambo leave. Can’t see anyone stepping up from the reserves and hit the ground running..
The third highest assists in the league for a team in 12th is nothing to be sniffed at and I’ve always thought he’s looked dangerous against us. Am a big fan of iwobi personally but ultimately he’s only got 5 prem assists this season and starts for us most weeks. Also with only one year left on his contract, we could get him for relatively cheap so wouldn’t be a big risk. I don’t really buy the lack of star quality point either. When are players supposed to make the step up if no one gives them the chance when… Read more »
Fraser is a fantastic player. I know its not a Glamorous name that most people would want us to be linked with, but he is a proper out and out winger who runs his socks off and provides goals and assists. If he can put goals on a plate for Calum Wilson and Josh King, I would assume he would have a lot of fun with Auba and Lacazette.
Can we get Brooks from them aswell while we are at it. I think he looks the business
Homegrown quota strikes again 😉
He doesn’t count as home-grown. The rule refers to players having played for an English team for 3 years before the age of 21. Fraser would have been in Scotland at that point.
If anyone disputes that, see the PL squad lists (https://www.premierleague.com/news/844127). He is not listed as home-grown.
Oh I would have thought home nations would count as home grown
No, it’s an FA thing, so they’re trying to make sure English players come through – they couldn’t care less about the other home nations’ national teams (not that they should).
I thought it was a bit odd when Blogs mentioned it and had to check to make sure I wasn’t going mad.
Thx for clarifying.
I thought he was qualified for HG quota too!
I think the thing people overlook a lot with links like this is the Home Grown Factor. We’re losing Ramsey and probably Welbeck too this summer – two home grown players in the squad. Players that count as HG usually have a big premium on them, so if we can snap up one for relatively cheap, we’re doing good business. Also, other Prem teams are much better at recruiting players like this – players at mid table clubs that could potentially make the step up. Look at Van Dijk, Wanyama, Harry Maguire, Robertson…there’s an advantage to getting someone Premier League… Read more »
I honestly don’t know how a big club didn’t go for Maguire when he left Hull? I remember watching our away game at Hull that season and thinking he was the best player on the pitch, probably a case of not being glamorous enough. Big clubs fan’s and PR departments don’t get too excited with signing a big old lumox like Maguire from a team like Hull, he does have a bit of an agricultural look about it.
I thought he was England’s best player last summer.
After Welbeck of course
“We’re losing Ramsey and probably Welbeck too”
blogs portrayed welbeck’s departure as a certainty, but i have not yet seen either him or arsenal say that is the case. given the homegrown player crunch and that he has played well for us it seems absurd to let him go unless he’s refusing to sign a new deal.
Well it might be case of wait and see for Welbeck, I think that for the same wages he goes for, we could do better.
But can we do better AND homegrown is the question on offer.
One year left on his contract could be good business for Arsenal. I’m all for it if his transfer fee doesn’t exceed £30 million
Ha ha 30m£ -From what I’ve read that’s our whole transfer kitty for next season.
Possibly a naive question,
Can’t we offer him a big salary bump and ask him to see his contract out so there’s no transfer fee?
It’s grubby but it happens for sure. Juve (et al) have been pissing in Ramsey’s ear for quite some time i’d imagine.
You can’t negotiate with a player without his clubs approval, unless it’s the final 6 months of his contract.
Otherwise it’s tapping up and can lead to fines and or transfer bans.
Plus what if Fraser did that and then tore his cruciate … he would be stupid to take that risk.
think the final 6 months thing doesn’t apply to domestic PL transfers
U mean to wait until 2022?
Will be a decent buy around 15-20m. Hopefully coming to us he can step up his gane like Mane.
His team mate Brooks is also a good prospect but costly. But we need a left footed winger for bringing variation in squad. Personally I would love to have Leandro Trossad of Genks. Under Emery I think he can turn out to be an exciting prospect.
How much are we looking at here? 25-30 million for a British lad even with the contract winding down?
Nah.
Save the money and re-sign Welbeck instead.
He is better then Welbeck, he would be a good signing.
Slightly off topic but spuds have spent 1 billion on a stadium that only has 1802 greater capacity than our stadium that cost £390 million – so they spent just shy of £339,000 per extra seat ?
Picked up Ramsey from a smaller team. Don’t know why people care that it’s Bournemouth.
I for one would welcome his addition. The Cherries are known for the attacking style of play under Essie Howe (at some point they’re considered the poor man’s Arsenal) so this guy could fit right in at Arsenal
He’s been brilliant for Bournemouth… I’d be happy if we got him
Arseblog this morning now putting out project fear…..
Why on Earth would we put immigration restrictions on workers that would certainly break the into the 45% tax barrier within a fortnight? And some within the first week?
Into an industry that’s creates billions in revenue, and is 1 of our most famous exports?
Blogs you want to get your head of of the Guardian and independent, left wing+remain propaganda rags.
It’s absurd to suggest we’d put harmful immigration restrictions in places for any industry where people were earning £150,000 p/a, let alone £150,000 p/w….
Absolutely ridiculous project fear nonsense….
So immigrants are ok when they earn enough money. Got it.
Yes that’s 100% right It’s basic economics, supply+demand If you have an oversupply on unskilled labour+ trades people? it drives down the prices people can then charge for their labour, and then keeps in there. When big business says “we need free movement” what it really means is we don’t want to pay people more, or treat them better, and there’s conclusive evidence for this, event he likes of Blair+Major as well as recent government reports have had to concede this, not that they would need too, you only have to look at the Australian system, and what happened here… Read more »
All right, Nigel Farage, calm yer tits
Truthful perhaps and represents how many people in what’s left of the UK feel but what has this rant got to do with Arsenal or even football for that matter? Premier League ball kickers are not going to suppress manual labourer’s salaries! The whole immigration thing is about controlling who comes here not blocking it altogether so why would we stop world class players who are by definition skilled workers from living and working in the UK? The reason the FA impose home grown player targets is a pathetic attempt to improve the England national team quality at someone else’s… Read more »
Think you’re on the wrong blog here bruv, piss off will ya.
Maybe you should get your head out of the Daily Mail?
I’d be surpirsed if this what we go for, but Fraser is one hell of a player, capable of competing against the top six teams too! I’d love to see how he fits into this team with the delivery he’d get from Xhaka and co I think he’d improve massively!
Depends how much he costs – money (or the relative lack of it) is the driver for Arsenal’s transfer policy, although things will improve somewhat if we get CL qualification. Given he’s into the closing stage of his contract, there may be business to be done but the fee is likely to be reasonably high to compensate for the sell-on clause with Aberdeen. We’ll see.
FWIW, here are the teams he’s scored/assisted against. Noticeably absent are any current top 7 opponents.
Goals (6) – Cardiff, Huddersfield (2), Watford, Leicester (2)
Assists (10) – WHU, Leicester, Fulham (2), Watford (2), Newcastle, Huddersfield (2), Brighton
Nice work gunnerpete.
Good player, but my feeling is that Joshua King has been their best player and is the one we should be looking at. 11 goals and 3 assists incl. goals against us, Chelsea (2+1 assist in that 4-0 thrashing), Everton, West Ham, as well as an international goal for his country against Spain.
thanks…and I don’t mean to infer he can’t be a “nice player” for Arsenal, but I think the context is interesting. Of course, I wouldn’t have expected him to be tearing it up against top teams (it is a team sport, after all) but the zero here raised an eyebrow.
why not? he is a decent player and can only get better from here.
Sounds like a smart signing if it happened, already doing very well against the same teams we’re going to be facing next season. Not too dissimilar to Kante, VVD, Robertson and Mane in that regard. He doesn’t need to make a “step up” as such because he’s already performing at the level we need.
He fits Emery’s style of the high press and he is not averse to tracking back. Solid work rate too and has age on his side. Plus we need a winger anyway and I don’t know many current Arsenal players with a low center of gravity. He’ll bring in something interesting and if he isn’t a success, at least we can be fairly certain that he’ll work hard. I say, go for it.
Also the fact that he is a left-winger with a right foot has a lot of potential for Robert Pires comparisons. And this is quite amazing as well – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOCFLmYKosU
Links to Arsenal always because we generally buy well (THANKS mainly to Wenger)
So every next agent trying to move their chattle will link players to us and the Sunday press will run it as legit.
Unfortunately plenty of over gullible fans out there.
Everton just pinched Marcel Brands off of PSV. Some good wide players there Lozano and Neres to name a few.
Over at Lille, ex Monaco man Campos (hablo Espanol) who was responsible for the likes of Mbappe etc being courted by Chelski. Again Nicolas Pepe a real find there.
No, Luis Campos was not ‘responsible’ for Mbappe. Mbappe wasn’t randomly spotted – his dad was coach of a local league club in the Paris suburbs, the kid was well-known in France as he developed in his teens, and when it came time to sign his first pro contract, they had their pick of Ligue 1 clubs, and also Chelsea who were on the case early. Mbappe and his father chose to go to Monaco because they have an excellent rep for developing young forwards going back to Henry and Trezeguet. Whoever the Director of Football was had nothing to… Read more »
Sorry Santori, you may be right if you meant Campos alerted Chelsea to young Mbappe. Bit confusing, because it also reads like you’re saying Campos is currently being courted by Chelsea for the DoF role.
No way!!!! Santori creating his own narrative to fit his argument???
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-meet-monaco-transfer-guru-signed-mbappe-bernardo-bakayoko-build-footballs-exciting-team-111214429.html Good interview with Luis Campos. I would get him. He was responsible for building the Monaco title winning team (ironically that denied PSG and Unai first season there). Emery will know him very well. He’s now doing great things at Lille who are second in league with modest budget. Interesting to note two things : 1) He mentions that beyond statistics you need to look and notice. Too many people these days tend to obsess with numbers (Particularly Americans) 2) Says Premier League tends to be wowed by strikers and tend to build them on medium quality defenses. Probably… Read more »
On your point about Mislintat, it was pretty daft to let him leave (presumably he was on a contract) when he did with, apparently, no agreement in place with any successor – even if they couldn’t arrive until the Summer. Whoever eventually gets it (Campos, or a.n.other) will be at least second choice after Monchi, and possibly third if, as reported, we contacted Overmars just before he signed a new Ajax contract. Even if he’s better than either of those, it looks amateurish.
Here we go again. Overmars or Campos would not be successors to Mislintat. Why do people keep conflating totally different roles? And Mislintat left of his own accord. He wasn’t fired or pushed out. He was appointed Head of Recruitment, and there was nothing preventing him from remaining in that position and working with whoever is appointed Technical Director or DoF. Just because you do not get the promotion you want, it doesn’t follow that you immediately quit. MIislintat has now left both Dortmund and Arsenal in very disruptive ways – so yeah we can do our usual thing and… Read more »
I think Blogs called Fraser ‘the guy with no neck’ in his match report, when he scored late against us.
Now he’s sticking his neck out for him.
He may not take games by the scruff of the neck, but he will be breathing down the defender’s neck at breakneck speed.
He took that Liverpool game (4-3) by the scruff of the neck when he came on – won the penalty, assisted & scored!
Good squad player for > £20 mil I suppose. Might scupper Nelson, Smith Rowe… I’d sooner buy a player who genuinely could be a worldie. Perhaps a few years younger than this pretty solid footballer.
I’m not going to lie, this link to player is worth 6 poos
he is fun to watch. but he does always look like he’s straining to make a pooh. which is absolutely fine. if he is scoring.
We need to sell- ospina,jenkinson,mustafi,chambers,kos,elneny,asano,ozil,
Miki,(ozil will probably have to be loaned due to WAG£S) there should be about £40m here.
Plus 50m transfer budget.
Cech=Martinez (been ok at reading f.c)
Ospina=cabbalero (free)
Leich= m.aarons 5m
Mustafi= c.zimmerman 5m
Kos=cahill/Luiz(both free replacements)
Elneny=rabiot/hector herrarra (both free)
Ramsey= maddison/delafou £40m
Miki=Frazer 5m once sold miki for 10m or brahimi(free)
Ozil= Van de beek £35m