12 goals in 20 games – Why Aston Villa’s 30-year-old January signing would aid the club’s promotion push

Why Lewis Grabban Would Help Aston Villa In Their Push For Premier League Promotion

As far back as December, a new home for Lewis Grabban was being discussed once it became apparent that Bournemouth were to recall the striker from Sunderland in January. Having done just that, we had to wait until deadline day to find out where he would end up and as it turns out, it’s another loan for Grabban who signed for Aston Villa on Wednesday until the end of the season.

The 30-year-old spent the first half of what was a very successful campaign on a personal note at the Stadium of Light, netting 12 times in 20 games for a side struggling badly to create significant chances.

Grabban, formerly of Rotherham United, Millwall and Norwich City, had to cut short his loan with Sunderland in order to find football at a higher level. While, of course, Villa are in the same league as the North East side, they are on the hunt for a promotion place to the Premier League and Grabban could be the final piece in their puzzle.

The club is looking to add more goals in order to grab the second automatic promotion place behind Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite the quality in their squad and the gradual improvement shown up to this point of the campaign, Villa were definitely known to be in need of a forward with youngster Keinan Davis taking an unfair portion of the goalscoring burden on his shoulders for most of the season.

Scott Hogan found some form of late but this was not seen as being enough to placate Steve Bruce and so a new striker became a priority to ensure promotion is achieved, Grabban understandably being the wanted man. Earlier in the transfer window, Grabban was pursued among others by Fulham, Wolves and Cardiff City, the latter very hopeful of winning the race to his signature before Villa stepped in.

From the player’s point of view, this is a wise move given that momentum can be everything and so despite the strong start to the campaign made by the Welsh side, it has been Villa and Derby County showing the biggest improvement in form to reach the top three and issue the strongest challenges to Wolves.

For Villa though, the move is even better. Grabban is clearly hitting his career peak and could on that basis be doing a job for someone in the Premier League right now, somewhere Villa strive to be.