Ryan Fraser’s former boss at Aberdeen thinks the player is better suited to a ‘struggling’ big team making Arsenal the front runners for his signature.

Ryan Fraser is expected to leave Bournemouth this summer and has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal. Unfortunately, he’s also been linked with a move to Liverpool and Manchester City and, let’s face it, we’re the useless relation in that family at present.

But his former manager at Aberdeen, Craig Brown, believes the 25-year-old would be better off going to a side that needs a player who can ‘rescue a team’. Given that Arsenal have just let Aaron Ramsey leave for free, it’s safe to say they have a vacancy.

“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s an intelligent wee guy,” Brown said of the midfielder who stands two whole centimetres shorter than Santi Cazorla.

“He may not have got right into the national side or a top team (when he left Aberdeen).

“He might have needed a spell getting promotion and being a big shot.

“For him to go to one of the top four or five is a big ask but if you’re one of them, you’d buy him.

“The time for him to go, to get the move, is if one of the big teams are struggling.

“One of the teams that needs a player that can rescue a team and he could certainly rescue any team. He lifts the crowd, creates goals and scores them. If you were a manager down there, he’d be a certainty to be an outstanding player wherever he goes.”

A fee of around £30m will be needed to land him – 20% of which will go to Aberdeen – and it’s hard to say that’s not a bargain.

Only Eden Hazard got more league assists in the top five European leagues this season than Fraser who provided 14. He also scored seven.

None of those goals, and only one of his assists, however, came against any of the top six sides. For the most part, he’s been a flat-track bully all season. That’s not necessarily all bad, though. Arsenal struggled against the lesser lights in the league this year. But Ramsey got the big goals in the biggest games, can Fraser?

Does Fraser have the potential to step up?

Probably.

Aberdeen sold him for £400,000 and it’s only taken him three-and-a-half years to raise his value to £30m, a price tag that would be a lot higher if he had more than one year left on his contract with Bournemouth.

And, at 25, he’s just about to hit his peak….