Scott Fraser has no desire to make his new manager feel old — but not only is he too young to remember Ray McKinnon as a player, a chunk of the info he’s been able to glean on him came from his grandfather!
The internet, it should be said, has also been a useful source and what he’s learned gives the Dundee United kid hope there’s plenty he can learn from the man he’ll be calling gaffer from now on.
“I don’t really know much about his playing career, if I’m honest,” said the 21-year-old.
“I heard he had a couple of spells here, my Grandad was telling me that actually. What I do know now is he was a midfielder. Hopefully, that will be a good thing for me.
“I’m really looking forward to working with him and, since it was announced he was taking the job, I’ve seen a few of his goals being posted online, a few good goals as well.
“I read that he scored a hat-trick of free-kicks in a game once but I haven’t seen those.
“For me, hopefully, it’s a good thing he played in the same position as I do and he was at our final game when I played in the centre of the park, which I feel is my best position.”
While he sticks to the old pro’s adage of being happy to play wherever he’s asked, Fraser does believe his best work is done in the middle.
“That’s where I want to play so, hopefully, I showed him I should be there.
“Obviously, he can point me to a few places on the park where I need to be, both attacking and when it comes to defending.”
When Mixu Paatelainen took over from Jackie McNamara last October, Fraser was moved further forward and stresses he had no complaints over the Finn doing that.
“I got a few games early in the season under Jackie McNamara when I was playing in the centre of the park.
“Then, when Mixu came in, he took me in the office and told me he wanted more strength rather than creative ability in the centre.
“That was totally understandable from his point of view. He brought in Guy Demel to play in there and then he took me into the office again and told me he would play me more advanced, whether it was on the right or just behind the main striker.
“I did my best for him but, in the last two games of the season, I played in centre midfield again and I felt I did much better and was getting back to what I should be.”
Now it’s a case of persuading his fellow Dundonian he should remain there, and Fraser won’t be waiting until the start of pre-season next month to continue working on that.
“I’ve a programme I’m going to be doing in the gym while I’m off.
“I want to work on my strength because I feel that’s an area where I believe I can improve.
“The season has just ended and I’ll have a holiday but already I can’t wait for pre-season to come because I want to get to work putting the club back where it should be.
“All the boys are the same and I think it’s been blown out of proportion a bit in terms of the fact there will be only five players at pre-season because of the issue with the guys under contract who’ve been told they are free to leave.
“I know a lot of them, most in fact, will be quite happy if they’re still here because they want to help rebuild.
“We are not a Championship club, we should be back in the Premiership and that’s where we all want to be.
“We got into a rut last season and couldn’t get out of it but we know we’re better than that.”
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