He knows it might come at the cost of moves elsewhere – but Jason Cummings isn’t prepared to let his honesty go as the former Nottingham Forest man settles in at Dundee.
The striker has signed a permanent deal at Dens Park following a spell in the EFL. After a breakthrough at Hibs in which he won the Scottish Cup and Scottish Championship, he moved south with Nottingham Forest, taking in a spell with Shrewsbury Town most recently.
But given his honest and exuberant character, some have labeled Cummings a ‘dafty’, as he commented on characters within the game: “A lot of people don’t know what I am like personally. I come in everyday and work my socks off.
“I like a joke and a bit of banter but when it comes to work I’m fully focused. A lot of players are robotic – it was good to the get the three points, the fans were brilliant’ – it’s boring.
“But that’s the way you need to be these days because when you go the other way – like the way I go sometimes – and be honest and speak like I would speak to my mates or whatever, everyone just batters you.
“They are like: ‘we want the characters in the game, the Gazzas, the George Bests’. Then as soon as one comes along, the moment you have a bad game they are on your back for it: ‘oh he messes about too much’. If I’m honest, it has actually probably hindered me getting moves.
“I feel like being yourself sometimes hinders that, managers from the outside will be like: ‘the boy Cummings is a bit of a dafty in his interviews’. The gaffer knows that I take my job seriously.”
And he’s determined to do the latter to his full ability, thrilled to be back in the SPFL: “I am buzzing, I hit a brick wall, was missing home a lot, so I was wanting to come up the road, get back to playing football.
“The gaffer here [James McPake], I played with him at Hibs before, so it made sense, he knew what I was like. He knows that I will score goals for him, he knows my personality.
“I missed Scottish football and I wanted to come back. It made sense and when I found out I couldn’t wait to drive up. I have settled in nicely and the boys have been class.”
NTOF now offers a YouTube channel featuring exclusive interviews, post-match discussion, in-depth debate, and much more – LIKE and SUBSCRIBE and don’t miss any of our videos.