CLASH & GRAB
Sunderland ready to take on their own top scorer tonight
SUNDERLAND top scorer Lewis Grabban is ready to condemn his former club to League One.
The striker quit Wearside in January, disillusioned with their relegation fight.
Grabban cancelled his loan deal from Bournemouth, and ended up in a promotion campaign at Aston Villa.
The 30-year-old (right) was one of the Black Cats’ few assets earlier this season, with 12 goals, a total that is unlikely to be beaten.
But Chris Coleman says Grabban didn’t tell him he was leaving. The Sunderland boss said: “He never came to me, he went to see our chief executive instead.
“I didn’t have a problem. Lewis has to look after Lewis, but I never had that conversation with him. It has gone, finished. I said all the way along, the boys we have now want to be here. “Whether we play bad or good, they want to be here and will be the boys that keep us up, not the lads that have left and gone on to do what they want to do.” Jack Grealish is in line to return for Villa tonight. The attacking midfielder, 22, was a key man in Villa’s recent seven-game winning run. But he has missed their last three league games, as he has been nursing a calf injury sustained last month.
It has affected Steve Bruce’s side’s form as they have taken four points out of nine without him and slipped to third. But the England Under-21 star is now set to be passed fit to return to tonight’s squad.