Lewis Grabban - signed on loan

[darren woolley]

He's been a brilliant loan signing for us really like the man.

[Diablo]

I did some digging on one of the Sunderland Forums and reading between the lines it looks as though Bournemouth simply recalled him (as they were looking to get a transfer fee and maybe Sunderland couldn't offer him a permanent deal?) and Lewis didn't have much of an option. There was initial interest from Wolves but he's ended up here (not sure who the other club that were after him were?). Sunderland will have difficulty trying to explain why/how they let someone who has scored 12 goals in 19 games for them leave to their fans, so there's always the possibility of a degree of spin? Taken from the Sunderland message board

On 5 January safc.com announced that the clubs had mutually agreed to cancel the loan agreement. It wasn't down to the activation of a clause by Bournemouth, we agreed to terminate the agreement.

On 2 February Coleman said "Lewis informed us of his desire to leave".

But Grabban said "There was a little bit of interest from Wolves to begin with but they went onto something else. I was called back with the indication that Bournemouth were going to sell me but that didn’t happen. There was also interest from elsewhere but Villa was the club I chose. As for Sunderland, I thought it was a good time. 22 In the press it came out that I wanted to go back. That’s not true. I was playing week in, week out and scoring goals, who wouldn’t be happy? The clubs agreed what they agreed and that was that."

Then, yesterday, Coleman admitted that Grabban had never spoken to him: "He actually never came to me, he went to see our chief executive. As we understood it he had cancelled his accommodation, then had a conversation with our chief executive to say his time here was up."

So even on Coleman's version of events, the club agreed to release their top scorer, who had 12 goals in 19 games for the worst side in the Division, without Coleman ever having a conversation with Grabban about it. And Grabban disputes the conversation and it may have been on the basis that Grabban wanted a move to Wolves which fell through anyway.



I hope Sunderland manage to get their act together and stay up their fans deserve much, much better. Can't say the same about their board/owner though.

[LeeB]

Jesus, that's a level of ineptitude beyond what we pulled off when we went down.

They are truly fucked.

[Clark W Griswold]

I like Lewis Grabban, he was excellent on Saturday. I'm going to predict a goal haul similar to that of Darren Bent when he first signed for us Jan-May.

EDIT : And yes, I thought the same thing with the Collymore comparisons on Saturday. He comes deep and lays it off and runs just like Collymore did for us (the odd times he could be arsed) and he's similar in the box with the poacher instinct. He's pretty strong physically and quick but so far he doesn't look the threat Collymore was shooting from distance. We are of course talking about a league below but touch wood, so far he's not appearing to be temperamental like Collymore was.

[brontebilly]

Far superior player to Hogan, better movement, better touch, hold up play. Would make you question why he hasn't progressed further in the game..

Our loan players have been excellent, even Onomoah in the first half of the season.

[Smirker]

No complaints with how we've gone about our transfer business really.

Really pleased with how we've got rid of duds and brought in useful players who are getting the job done.

Wonder of we will see any of the players on loan come back and have another go at it with us.

[mr underhill]

i don't want to think about what would have happened if Onomare had been playing on Saturday - he'd have been marmelized

[Brassneck]

I first read that we were linked to Grabban last Autumn. I didn't know anything about him so looked him up on YT. His goals were far from spectacular, more the "ugly" type of goal. Now whilst a goal is a goal and you don't get any more for a spectacular goal, I questioned whether Grabban was the answer for a team who played with just one up front.

I watched him closely when Sunderland came here and he looked a bit more lively than I had anticipated but I still wasn't sold on him.

I've watched him in all of his appearances in a Villa shirt and I've been really, really impressed, climaxing with his great performance on Saturday. If he continues this between now and the end of the season, I'd have no hesitation in signing him on a permanent, regardless of what division we are playing in next season.

At this moment in time, I wouldn't swap Grabban for Ulla despite being disappointed that we had done so in January.

[Ads]

I think its his ability for the ball to stick and similarly move it on at pace. His movement is excellent, as he drifts wide and deep, yet he still seems to be in a position to split the centre halves, like Saturday.

Good player.

[Toronto Villa]

He’s a very strong lad too and has a very stable centre of gravity so he doesn’t get knocked off the ball easily. And at 6ft he can compete for headers while having good footwork and movement. Not the fastest but he makes use of his speed through his positioning. He’s exactly what we needed in January to help see us over the line.

[tomd2103]

I think its his ability for the ball to stick and similarly move it on at pace. His movement is excellent, as he drifts wide and deep, yet he still seems to be in a position to split the centre halves, like Saturday.

Good player.

Yep and probably still not quite at full sharpness yet either.  He has a welcome combination for any striker - strong enough to hold the ball up and enough pace to get in behind defenders. 

[Diablo]

He's currently on 16 this season, total number of goals?  Barring injury I'm going for another 5 if we don't make the playoffs. 6 if we do.

[Drummond]

I've watched him in all of his appearances in a Villa shirt and I've been really, really impressed, climaxing with his great performance on Saturday.

Blimey, he was good but he didn't have that effect on me.

[Brassneck]

I've watched him in all of his appearances in a Villa shirt and I've been really, really impressed, climaxing with his great performance on Saturday.

Blimey, he was good but he didn't have that effect on me.

Leading the line in a side that scored 4 goals against the league leaders was a great performance, even allowing for the low bar that Hogan has set.

[Matt Collins]

Whoosh