Roberto Martinez added to the growing pool of Scottish-born talent currently plying their trade at Wigan last week by snapping up the highly-rated Fraser Fyvie from Aberdeen on a three-year contract. The 19-year-old arrives in a deal rumoured to be in the region of £500,000 and is the Latics’ first signing of the summer transfer window:
Fyvie is the sixth player from north of the border to join up at the DW Stadium, following Shaun Maloney, Gary Caldwell, Conor Sammon, James McCarthy and James McArthur to the Latics, and is expected to provide competition for the latter two for a central midfield role in Martinez’s favoured 3-4-2-1 formation next term. The Wigan boss was glowing in his assessment of the new boy, going on to say:
I’m excited because we’re signing such a strong character and a great personality at just 19 years of age. Technically he’s very gifted, enjoys playing in the midfield where he can cover large areas, he’s very powerful off the ball and in possession is someone who can read the tempo of the game very well. Also you have to remember that for such a young player he’s played a lot of games in the SPL at a high standard which shows his maturity.
The Statistics
Making his debut in the 2009-10 season, Fyvie became the youngest player ever to feature for Aberdeen and earned Man of the Match award on his debut against Hamilton. He scored just one goal over 25 appearances in his first campaign and, in doing so, became the youngest player to notch in a Scottish Premier League match. The following season was a disaster, however; Fyvie made just five league appearances after sustaining a cruciate ligament injury in August but returned to action last term without any ill-effects.
Firmly established in the Dons’ first XI under former Scotland boss Craig Brown, the youngster made 28 appearances in 2011/12 but, after picking up interest from plenty suitors, made it clear midway through the season that he was determined to ply his trade in England this August. In total, he made 58 appearances for the Pittodrie outfit, scoring twice and providing four assists, and has also represented his country at Under 17 and Under 19 level.
Talking about the player’s potential, Brown could hardly commend Fyvie higher when assessing the midfielder’s abilities:
I’ve worked with some of the best Scottish midfielders over the years, including John Collins, Paul Lambert and Barry Ferguson. I was also the assistant manager of Scotland when Paul McStay made his big breakthrough. They were all midfielders of exceptional quality, but Fraser has the potential to become the best of the lot. He’s not there yet, but he has that wee bit of extra dig about him – the sort of extra quality that helped Paul Scholes become one of the best midfielders in Europe.
The Prospects
Martinez has a history of blooding young talent at the DW, with age clearly no barometer of quality in the Spaniard’s opinion. McCarthy and Victor Moses, for example, made 33 and 36 starts in the season gone by, despite both players being just 21 years of age. Having lost Mohamed Diame, Steve Gohouri and Hendry Thomas already this summer, Martinez clearly has room for more personnel in the middle of the park but with McCarthy and McArthur now seemingly established in the two central midfield slots, the Wigan boss alluded to the fact that Fyvie may be afforded time to adjust to his new surroundings:
The physical demands of the Premier League are very different to the SPL and bridging that gap takes time, but Fraser has time on his side and we’re all desperate to see him enjoying his football, welcomed by the fans. He wants to compete for his place straight away, and we’ve seen with the likes of James McCarthy and James McArthur how big that jump can be at first, but look at them now and they’re reliable players who we all take great pride in watching.
In all likelihood, Fyvie may well be a peripheral figure if Martinez’s cautious approach with McCarthy and McArthur in their respective debut campaigns is anything to go by. While 19 of the former’s 20 appearances came in the first XI in his initial season at the DW, as many as 15 of the latter’s 18 games arrived from the bench. Priced at 4.5 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and 4.7 in the Sky Sports game, Fyvie is one of the cheapest options around but looks to have little appeal if Martinez plans to ease him into the fold.
Analysing the fixture list, home games against (CHE, STO, FUL, EVE) and trips to Southampton and Swansea in the first eight Gameweeks offer plenty of hope for the Latics after a stuttering start to the previous campaign. With the 3-4-2-1 system now firmly established, Martinez’s men have an opportunity to maintain the brilliant run of form that earned them wins in seven of the last nine in 2011/12 and could well be an altogether different proposition for Fantasy managers this time round. It’s more than doubtful as to whether Fyvie can make an early impression, however, with Maloney and Jean Beausejour both likely to afford us the most prosperous cut-price route into the Latics’ midfield across the Fantasy games.
