RYAN Fraser last night outlined the key role which flame-grilled spicy chicken played in Scotland’s successful promotion from Uefa Nations League Group C. Speaking in veiled terms about a previous culture of cliques in the international dressing room, the Bournemouth winger said such things were a thing of the past now under Alex McLeish, as witnessed by the fact that pretty much the entire squad decamped to Nando’s on their day off this week to sample some Portuguese delicacies.
Say what you like about that, but it is certainly a far more wholesome way of spending your down time than some Scotland squads of the past.
“It’s just small things, like sitting around the table together,” said Fraser, who settled for two assists on Tuesday night – one off his posterior. “Maybe in recent years players have split into little groups and not mixed with each other but in the last few trips it’s been a lot better. It feels more like a club side now, I suppose. Even on our days off, we don’t go away individually and do our own things.
“A lot of us went to Nando’s the other day, just small things like that. Once you start to get to know each other better away from football you want to do more for each other on the pitch.You hear everybody’s stories and their backgrounds and it makes you fight a little harder for them. Mixing like that is something we do ourselves but it’s also something that the manager encourages.
“The gaffer likes to give us days off but he always tells us to go out and do stuff together and we love to do that.”
While McLeish’s team appears freshly put together, in fact it has been years in the making. “When I look at it now, so many of us came through the age groups together playing for Scotland and we all believe in what each other can do,” said Fraser. “I came through with the likes of Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor, Graeme Shinnie, Stuart Armstrong, John McGinn...that brings togetherness.
“If you get uptight you’re going to make more mistakes and it can be easy to do that when the fans get on your back a little bit, like when we went behind,” he added. “But it shows character to come through. The next 10 minutes were difficult but we showed what we’re capable of.”
Spate of call-offs or not, Fraser refutes the suggestion of disharmony in the squad. “I think you’ve seen – apart from the game away to Israel, when I wasn’t there and don’t know what happened – that things are a lot better,” said Fraser. “Training is fun, everyone is laughing – taking it seriously but, at the same time, having fun with everyone.”
While Fraser is cutting a dash in the Barclays Premier League each week, Forrest and others have chosen to remain north of the border. There will be inevitable questions as to whether the Celtic winger could make it in England too, but Fraser for one feels he can achieve everything he wants to in Scotland.“I don’t think he or the other lads need to come to England,” said Fraser. “Everyone has their own ambitions and I wanted to go down south but that doesn’t mean everybody else has to as well. James is doing brilliantly for Celtic, which is a massive club. So is Rangers and then there’s Aberdeen. As long as everyone is enjoying their football and doing well, I’ll be glad for them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here