AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe will leave all options open regarding striker Lewis Grabban, who is currently on loan with Sunderland.
Grabban first made the move to Dean Court 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 in January 2014 when the Seagulls triggered a reported £1million release clause, 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 returned to AFC Bournemouth for an undisclosed fee on 11th January 2016, which was reportedly in-excess of £6million according to Mark McAdam from Sky Sports.
Grabban signed a three and a half year deal, but has thus far only made 22 appearances during this latest spell, including only 4 Premier League starts and a single League Cup goal.
In January 2017 he joined Championship side Reading on a half season loan deal, playing 19 times as the Berkshire side reached the play-offs.
In July 2017 he joined Sunderland on a season long loan deal, which would also include the play-offs if required.
However after 11 goals in 16 Championship appearances, Sunderland could lose Grabban during the January transfer window.
AFC Bournemouth hold a recall option on Grabban, which could see Grabban return to the south coast, be recalled and go out on loan again, be sold or remain with Sunderland.
Howe told the Daily Echo…
“We will sit down with Grabbs and make the right call for him, for us and for everybody, to see what the next step is…
“…He scored goals in the Championship before and it is good to see him do it on a regular basis.
“I have a long history with him, he was one of the guys back in the League One days who did so well for us and then made the jump to the Championship…
“…I am really pleased he is showing his true quality and we will wait and see.”
Your Say…
Garbo wrote…
…don’t really think that we will get much more than £7-8 million for him tbh..
we loaned him out to cut our losses on him..and it has been a good move obviously! – Join the conversation here.
It’s easy to join AFCB Vital
Sign up and have your say on the articles, polls and forums, just click the link to register.
