There’s no doubt Lewis Grabban is a player with a great deal of talent. His double at the weekend demonstrated his class, and there’s no doubt Steve Bruce’s decision to take him on loan in January has been fully vindicated.
To be fair, it wasn’t a huge risk to sign the player on loan. After all, he had already scored 12 goals in a struggling Sunderland team, showing he could prove to be a vital source of goals if offered the opportunity at Villa Park.
His two strikes at the weekend showed the variety in the type of goals he can score too. He turned Ipswich defender Jonas Knudsen to score close to the hour mark for his first goal, and his second came from a consummate finish from outside the area.
In his previous match against Leeds, when he was pushed out wide to accommodate Jonathan Kodjia, he still managed to score with an excellent headed finish. The 30-year-old has been crucial in helping us secure a top-four finish at least.
He has scored 19 in total for both us and the Black Cats this season and soon the question will be raised over whether we should try to secure him on a permanent basis. The Birmingham Mail believe we could only sign him if we are promoted due to issues surrounding Financial Fair Play.
With that being the case, would it be a wise investment? On the face it, probably not. Lewis’s career has been peppered by a number of false dawns before. His form at Bournemouth got him a move to Norwich. However, he struggled for goals when the Canaries were promoted to the Premier League.
After rejoining the Cherries midway through the 15/16 season, he was given more game time but still failed to make an impact in the top flight before being loaned out to Reading in 2016/17. His confidence was certainly knocked as he scored just three times in the second half of last campaign.
The statistics are not completely fair to the striker though. He made just seven starts for the Royals, just 19 appearances in his second spell with the Cherries, and six appearances in total for Norwich in the Premier League. With that in mind, it would be unfair to judge what he could achieve.
He would definitely be a great signing if we were remaining in the Championship, but with FPP that is unlikely. If we do get back into the Premier League though, the option would be there, but there would certainly be a few more question marks over whether it would be a good decision.
Personally, I think the top flight may be a step too far for him, but what do you think?
