Sunderland were no better with Grabban says Coleman
Lewis Grabban, Sunderland's current top scorer this season is returning to The Stadium of Light tonight with Aston Villa, and Grabban can be assured after cutting his loan deal short in January he will face a hostile reception.
Ahead of tonights clash Grabban is expected to lead the line for Aston Villa only a few weeks after he left the club to join the Villians on loan for the remainder of the season, so he is now in a promotion battle rather than a fight for a survival.
Despite leaving Grabban is still the clubs top scorer with 12 goals this season, despite playing his last game for Sunderland on December 23rd against Birmingham in which he also scored his final goal for the club.
Chris Coleman has made a claim today though that despite scoring 12 goals in the first half of the season the club was not much better with him.
“He got 12 goals for us, Lewis, but we were still in the bottom three (when he left),” said Coleman.
“He was on loan, we hadn’t signed him in fairness to him.
“There was a clause in his contract that he could exercise or Bournemouth could. What’s happened is that there was talk he could go to this club or that club who were looking at him. He’s chosen Aston Villa – good choice.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s done and dusted. Our supporters will look at it and go, ‘if we still had him, maybe we could have scored more goals.’ But we had him until January anyway and we were still in the bottom three.
“He had an opportunity which he took. I’ve no gripe over that, it was his choice.”
So Coleman obviously understand Grabban's reasoning for wanting to leave the club but the former Wales manager was surprised in how Grabban's exit came about.
“The first I heard of it was when I found out Lewis had cancelled his accommodation, which obviously sets the alarm bells ringing.
“It was the media who asked me if there was a clause that meant he could go back in January. I found out there was, so then you’re thinking, ‘OK, this is something which could happen.’ You hoped it didn’t.
“When I found out he cancelled his accommodation clearly you knew what was going to happen. Lewis went to speak to Martin Bain (chief executive) and Martin asked him (if he wanted to go) and he said ‘Yeah, I’m going back to Bournemouth.’
“That’s up to the player, he’s got an opportunity to go and play where he thinks he can do better, that’s up to the player.”
So despite Coleman not overreacting after Grabban's departure, what can the forward expect from the crowd tonight on Wearside, well according to Coleman he won't affect what the fans do and his job is to keep his side focused throughout the 90 minutes.
“I wouldn’t want to build it up. He’s a goalscorer but Aston Villa aren’t third in the league for nothing. At this level they’re a strong, strong team, pushing for automatic (promotion).
“But what we can’t do is get bogged down just with one player. We can’t worry about Aston Villa we’ve just got to get our own heads right and concentrate on ourselves.
“Our fans will do what they want to do at the end of the day, no matter what I say. They’ll sing or they won’t sing. I’ve got to make sure, we’ve got to make sure they’re concentrating on Sunderland – for positive reasons. They’ll do that if we’re playing well and if they see that we’re committed to it.”
Credit to Sky Sports for the imagery used in this article.