Scott Fraser knows coming home will keep his family happy and allow him to get back to the top of his own game at Dundee.
The playmaker goes into the Dark Blues squad for the first time for tomorrow’s Dens Park clash with Aberdeen. The 29-year-old terminated his contract at Charlton on deadline night because his young family had been struggling for a couple of years in London. “I feel like it’s been the most spoken about thing over the last two years,” the Dundee new boy stated.
“I’ve made no secret of it. As soon as my missus said to me that, in other words, she’s had enough of London, it’s been tough. We’d play Saturday, Tuesday down there so I was away a lot. So it could be two or three days a week that I’m home and then four or five days I’m gone. So when that sort of came about it made it difficult.
“Then we spoke about maybe two weeks up here, two weeks they come down. But things like that didn’t work out.
“I stopped enjoying my football side of it because I knew that nothing was right away from the football. So this has been a big uplift for me, football and my family.”
Fraser reckons it has been two years since he really enjoyed his football at Charlton. He admitted: “A while ago if I’m honest. Probably when I first went to Charlton it was enjoyable.
“Ben Garner came in. I signed in January and Ben Garner came in during the summer and I probably had four or five months with him that I genuinely enjoyed. My missus was pregnant in the January when we signed for Charlton.
“And even the first day or four months was okay, because we had family and that around us. As I said, when we’re not happy off the pitch, London is obviously a different type of world than what we’re used to up here.”
The likes of Oxford United and Bolton were keen to sign Fraser from Charlton but he made it clear he wanted back to Tayside. He also had offers from Australia and from across Europe when he became a free agent but he wanted to play for Tony Docherty.
He stated: “I feel like I’ve picked the right group of people to come and work with every day. I think the manager and his coaching staff really seem genuine, good football people and human beings as well.
“I spoke to the manager two or three months ago, it was the first thing we talked about. It was about the family here and getting them settled and he was completely aligned with that.
“And then me personally for football, I think he’ll suit me in terms of how he wants the team to play. Attacking football and getting me on the ball and things.”
Fraser came back up to Scotland on-loan to Hearts last January but his stay there was curtailed by injury. He is looking to make up for lost time at Dens, starting on Saturday.
He stated: “However long they need me to play, I’ll be ready. I’ve been training for the best part of two or three weeks by myself but nothing really prepares you for actual football.
“You can do as much running as you like, but when you get the ball to your feet and you’re twisting and turning and getting bumps, that’s the part that I still need to get used to again.”