Dundee United star Scott Fraser has moved swiftly to rubbish a rumour he wants to leave Tannadice.
Apparently, mixing up the time of year and thinking this was April Fool’s and not Christmas, someone had taken to the internet to claim the midfielder had handed in a transfer request.
Fraser’s immediate response was to take to Twitter and make clear he’s happy at Tannadice.
“Don’t know who has time to start the rumours, don’t believe everything you hear/read” the 20-year-old tweeted, adding a thumbs up to his message.
Fraser has been a star man as, under Ray McKinnon, United have soared into the thick of the Championship promotion race this term.
After last week’s draw at Raith Rovers, the manager described the Dundonian as “outstanding” and earlier in the campaign labelled him the best midfield ball carrier in Scottish football.
His displays have seen him watched by a string of bigger clubs but United are keen to hang on to him, while the player himself is happy where he is.
Meanwhile, Arabs will have been bemused by former boss Mixu Paatelainen’s claim a big reason for his failure at Tannadice as United were relegated last term was down to only having the January transfer window in which to make signings.
In an interview, the Finn said: “When you are only given the January window — which is not a proper window — you can only bring in players who are not wanted somewhere else.
“That window is very limited, so it was difficult to do that using only January.”
Fans will remember a different story as Mixu’s five biggest signings — that cost the club hundreds of thousands of pounds — all came outside of that window.
Former English Premier League starts Guy Demel and Florent Sinama Pongolle were added in November last year, as was centre-half Gavin Gunning.
Japanese international goalkeeper Eiji Kawshima had been at Tannadice since late October, signed at the end of December and would have played earlier but for problems with getting him a work permit.
And former Nigerian international Edward Ofere was also fixed up as a free agent in February after the transfer window closed.
In fact, the only additions to the first-team squad in the opening month of this year were Finnish international Riku Riski and West Ham kid Kyle Knoyle, both on loan.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.