‘MILLER TIME GOT ME GOING AGAIN – NOW I’M EAGER TO CRACK PREM'
IT WAS a stern word with himself when he was playing for Rotherham in League Two that was career-changing for Lewis Grabban.
The answers he found halted the decline and set him up for a possible third crack at the Premier League with Aston Villa.
Grabban, 30, admits he was going downhill quicker than a four-man bobsleigh.
“It was a reality check for me. I’d taken football for granted but suddenly I was going downhill rather than up,” he says.
Grabban’s always scored goals, but here he was having gone from Crystal Palace (Championship), to Millwall (League One and Championship), to Brentford (League One) to sitting alone in his Sheffield home examining why he was now a mid-table League Two Rotherham player.
It was a free transfer that took him to Rotherham. So what was next?
“It saved my career,” says Grabban. “You can get too comfortable. When I say ‘taking it for granted’, that’s what I mean, thinking it will always be there and before you know it, it isn’t.
“I felt I had more ability than what I was showing. Going to Rotherham gave me the opportunity to play week in, week out and I enjoyed it.”
Grabban’s 20 goals, 17 in the league, got him noticed and a £300,000 move to Bournemouth. The fees have escalated since. Norwich paid £3m then Bournemouth £7m to take him back. When Grabban’s career was derailed again and he wasn’t getting games at Bournemouth, he was loaned out to Sunderland and, in what is generally accepted as an embarrassment of a side, scored 12 times in 19 games.
It was reported that Grabban asked for the loan to be
terminated to go back to Bournemouth in January. Not so, he says.
“It was easier to blame me,” says Grabban. “I said ‘playing every week, scoring every week, why would I want to leave?’.
It was said I didn’t want to be in a relegation battle, but, being selfish, I was doing so well I would have stayed.”
It’s thought Bournemouth wanted Grabban back to sell him in the January window.
Benefits
“There was a mixture of things,” he said. “I try not to get involved in club to club and what they are discussing but obviously there would have been benefits for both. “There are always things that happen behind the scenes that don’t get put out. I got called back, went back and can’t really question it.” Again, he couldn’t get a game at Bournemouth. He was training with the kids and left with nothing to do on a Saturday. without Villa manager injured Steve top striker Bruce, Jonathan Kodjia, youngster Keinan Davis needing care and attention in the amount of games he plays and Ross McCormack not wanted, needed help for the Championship promotion push and Grabban got a call.
Wolves were also interested and Grabban comes up against them on Saturday in a local derby that will fill Villa Park. The upper tier of the Trinity Road stand is going to be open, a rarity in this Championship life, and Grabban will taste the big occasion again.
“I wouldn’t be looking at a big game like this if I hadn’t taken that opportunity with Rotherham,” he says. “It was a very important 12 months for what me, to I could score do. goals and show
“The career path for me had been Championship or better, that’s what I’d always thought.
“But if you are not playing for a long period of time, uless you are Messi, then people think there is something wrong with you. “You are a footballer, but you are not a footballer. Missing games is not fun. Not for me anyway. “They are questioning your ability. Then you slip down. That’s what happened. “I thought about it. I refocused. Put a bit more in. made “Being a difference. away from When home you’ve got no family around you, friends, it doesn’t influence you as it used to. “It was a re-beginning. I concentrated on my career football, football, football. “My personal life was put on hold. For all players up and down the country, when you are really trying to be successful, your personal life doeshave to go on hold. “In your late teens, early 20s, you still want to have a bit of fun. My attitude has changed since those days.
“It’s a short career and you’ve got to be ‘at it’ while you can because you never know when it will end.”
Grabban’s had 11 clubs in 13 years, six of them loans. He’s had promotions with Millwall and Bournemouth to the Championship, won a Championship play-off final with Norwich and lost one last season with Reading.
There is a lot of experience there spread around the country and that, plus his goals, is why Bruce brought him to Villa.
Experience
Grabban hit the ground running with two goals in his first two Villa games.
He’s at Villa until the end of the season, after that he doesn’t know.
He feels there’s a Premier League player in there yet to be given a decent run.
Six games with Norwich brought one PL goal against Arsenal in 2015. Back at Bournemouth, 18 games in the Premier League didn’t bring even one.
“I’ve not had a full crack at it,” he said. “I wish it had gone differently at Norwich and it didn’t work out at Bournemouth. I’d like to get a consistent chance in the Premier League. I’ve got belief and no doubts that I can score goals.”
Grabban is still Sunderland’s top scorer this season and says: “For me, it was reestablishing some form and being able to play every week. Simon Grayson was the manager and said come and play. “There was pressure because Sunderland are a big club not doing well, but that’s why I chose it.
“Sunderland was good for me. I was training with the kids at Bournemouth and it was a long way back from that to getting goals for Sunderland.
“Any senior player who is training with the under-21s, there’s alarm bells. You need to get out and re-establish your career. It’s not good, especially when you are a senior pro.
“I would like to think that someone at Sunderland gets a few more goals (Aiden McGeady is closest to Grabban with six) and keeps them up. That club should be nowhere near flirting with relegation again.”
While Grabban was at Sunderland, Bradley Lowery’s fight against cancer brought a tear to the nation’s eye.
“It touched the club, it was very deep. There’s the Bradley foundation now. It was such a sad situation. Football is just a job. That is real life.”
Grabban will be making an emotional trip himself this summer to Gambia.
On his Twitter page there are nine kids all in Bournemouth kit. They are from an orphanage that Grabban’s friend from South London, charity worker Abu Bakr, has set up in Gambia.
“These kids’ parents have died through illness, tough times,” explains Grabban. “It is quite poor over there. My friend is from Gambia originally and he wanted to set up something that is safe.
“There are orphanges that are unsafe in what can be bad situations.
“I sent some kit out a year ago. My friend’s hands-on, he runs it.
“I’ve never been there, but I’m planning to go in the summer. I want to see what they’ve built, meet the kids. It will be a nice experience.”