Sunderland, AFC Bournemouth loan deal was short but sweet before disaster struck | OneFootball

Lewis Grabban was prolific at the Stadium of Light, but couldn't stop the rot on Wearside

Lewis Grabban’s time as a Sunderland player was a fruitful one from a personal perspective, but what followed from after his departure from the Stadium of Light took years to amend in the north east.

The frontman made the move to join the Mackems on loan from AFC Bournemouth back at the start of the 2017/18 season, with the Wearsiders adjusting to their new surroundings of the Championship after suffering relegation to the Premier League.

Things weren’t right around the club at the time, but Grabban tried his best to steady the ship at the start of the campaign, after making himself a regular on the scoresheet during his time in the red and white stripes.

But after netting for fun at the start of the season, the forward was plucked by divisional rivals Aston Villa for the second-half of the campaign, with disastrous consequences for the Black Cats come the end of the campaign.

Lewis Grabban’s remarkable record as a Sunderland player

Grabban wasted no time in showing Sunderland fans just what he was about after making the length-of-the-country move to the Stadium of Light in the summer of 2017, with three goals in his first two league games making an early mark in his new home.

A spot-kick against Derby County got his account up and running for the season on the opening day, before a match-defining brace in a 3-1 win over Norwich City proved just what he was all about, with his pace in behind causing all sorts of problems against second tier opposition.

With the knack of being in the right place at the right time, and an elusiveness in trying to break the last line of defence, Grabban was a force to be reckoned with in the second tier during the peak of his career, and Sunderland looked to have the perfect player to help ease them back into life in the EFL after a wretched end to life in the Premier League the season before.

After finishing rock-bottom of the top flight, the Mackems needed a pick me up heading into the next campaign, and their borrowed forward was trying his best to provide that tonic the best he could, with a run of eight goals in eight games between October and December seeing him do his bit to try and stem the tide as the mood continued to darken in the north east.

Alas, none of those goals in that streak came in victories for his side, with two braces earning 3-3 draws against Brentford and Bolton, as well as another in a 2-2 draw with Millwall, while the rest came in defeats which would come to define the 17/18 season at the Stadium of Light.

Despite Grabban’s best efforts, that win at Norwich wasn’t followed up by another three-point haul until late November, with that losing feeling hard to shake for the Wearsiders, as they stared down the barrel of a second relegation on the bounce.

Still, their loan signing continued to plug away, with another strike earning a point against Birmingham City just before Christmas, making it 12 goals in 19 Championship outings for Sunderland, although only two of those helped to earn a victory at Carrow Road back in August.

Aston Villa profit from Sunderland position to snare Lewis Grabban in January

Having proven his credentials as a top Championship striker once again, promotion-chasing Villa were only too keen to take the frontman on when January struck, with Bournemouth happily recalling the goal-getter and sending him to the Midlands for the second-half of the campaign.

Another eight goals in 15 followed in claret and blue, including the opener upon his return to the Stadium of Light in early March, where Sunderland fans were at their lowest ebb in decades with the club on the cusp of collapse as the season reached its climax.

While Grabban and Villa would ultimately come up short in the play-off final, it was nothing compared to the Wearsider’s plight, as a run of just three wins after the turn of the year saw them head down to League One with a whimper; finishing bottom of the league for two years on the trot.

Whether keeping Grabban would have made the difference to their survival strategy is hard to say, with a porous defence proving their undoing time and time again, while a defeatist attitude saw the side throw in the towel all too easily over the course of the campaign.

A 20-goal season across two separate clubs is testament to how prolific the AFC Bournemouth man could be in the second tier though, with his natural ability to find the back of the net making him a key EFL marksman during his career.