AFC Bournemouth have completed the signing of Norwich City striker Lewis Grabban.
Grabban makes the move to Dean Court for a second time after previously enjoying a spell on the south coast which began on 31st May 2012 when he joined from League Two side Rotherham United for a fee in the region of £300,000.
Grabban had spent just one season with Rotherham after moving from Brentford. He scored 18 goals in League Two making him the joint top goalscorer for the 2011/12 season.
During his first season with the Cherries he scored 13 goals in 47 appearances as AFC Bournemouth won promotion from League One.
After scoring just once in his opening 11 appearances, he scored his next 12 goals over 22 games before failing to score over the final 14 fixtures.
He almost joined Brighton when the Seagulls triggered a reported £1million release clause during the January 2014, however he signed a new deal with AFC Bournemouth to see out the rest of the 2013/14 season. Grabban became the clubs leading scorer in the second tier of English football scoring 22 goals as AFC Bournemouth finished the Championship in a record high 10th place.
He later left the Cherries when Norwich triggered an improved release clause in his contract in June 2014, for an undisclosed fee reportedly in the region of £3million.
He scored five times in his first five games for Norwich and played his part in the sides promotion to the Premier League via a Wembley Play-Off victory.
During the summer of 2015 he was the subject of four failed bids by the Cherries and it appeared that Grabban wanted a return to AFC Bournemouth and reportedly went AWOL following a failed bid by the Cherries.
Grabban was later suspended by Norwich and never returned on a regular basis to the first team fold, ending his Norwich career with 13 goals in 41 appearances, with his final goal coming against Arsenal.
He returns to AFC Bournemouth for an undisclosed fee reportedly in-excess of £6million according to Mark McAdam from Sky Sports.
Grabban has agreed a three and a half year deal and joins just 24 hours after AFC Bournemouth broke their transfer record to sign Wolves striker Benik Afobe.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.uk…
‘We’re really pleased to be bringing Grabbs back to Bournemouth, It was such a long drawn out transfer but we’re delighted it’s been done.
‘He had such a good time for us, scored goals, worked incredibly hard and it’s a good fit for us.
‘He’ll bring enthusiasm and the benefit of Grabbs is that he knows how we play…’
‘…He’s also someone who was popular in the dressing room, behind the scenes he’s a strong motivator and we’re delighted to be bringing him back.’
Your Say…
Brents Goulet wrote…
There is so much debate, and affair amount of negativity
I think this is a fantastic signing because:
A quick, athletic and mobile front man is critical to how we play; in the long term absence of Callum Wilson, we now have 3 options for this (Benik Afobe, Joshua King and Lewis Grabban)
Which means we can carry an injury (Joshua King) and have two options still (which means we can start one and sub one!)
He knows the players and manager, and clearly left on very good terms
He knows the system – any new signing will take months to learn it (Murray is still learning, so is Josh)
Agree with Neil Dawson re price; we don’t know the real cost, and are owed a sell-on anyway. I imagine there will be plenty of clauses around staying up etc (and if we stay up, it ends up being a snip)
So in this window so far we have:
Replaced an injured Callum Wilson with Benik Afobe
Replaced an injured Max Gradel with Juan Iturbe
Replaced Tokelo Rantie with Lewis Grabban
I’d say that’s a pretty good window so far no?
There is so much talk about money/value, but what we all know is there is NO value in this league in terms of signings, and January is an inflated window anyway
Rumours are that Swansea want Andre Gray (Burnley) for 12-13million – which makes both Benik Afobe and Lewis Grabban a snip! It’s a sellers market, but all transfer amounts are relative to TV money this season and next season
And it’s not like we are signing journeymen players in the twilight of their careers
So come on, let’s trust our manager, celebrate these times, and look forward to the second half of the season with a competitive squad – Join the conversation here.
It’s easy to join AFCB Vital
With Vital Bournemouth you can win prizes just by having your say on the articles, polls and forums, click the link to register.
