Grabban deserves his move

I was not that surprised to hear that Lewis Grabban has been chased so hard by Cardiff City. They now look to have his signature with their bid being accepted by AFCB, according to many news sources. The bids were always going to come in I felt once AFCB had not said that the striker was not for sale. Many of the newspapers were also saying there have been no bids so far, while SKY had been informing everyone that a bid of £3m would probably land the Cherries striker. Having not gone to Brighton in January, it was always likely that a team would be in for him this summer knowing that he had proved himself in the Championship. Cardiff have a nice windfall payment from the Premiership and it is obviously not sitting that comfortably on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's pocket.

We are unlikely to see this scene at Dean Court again.

Some of you will say that Grabban missed more chances than he scored and yes he could have bagged even more goals for the Cherries. But what is a pity is that we won't see more of the Kermorgant/Grabban partnership that looked so good.

While you can say Grabban's value has grown 10 fold since being at AFCB and the money will be helpful in recovering some of the out goings that the club has seen, how many 22 goal a season Championship players are there that can be bought for £3m? I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing to have happened for the Cherries. It will be their record profit from a player's sale and it shows that the Cherries can develop a player and increase their value. They still have a solid team with many aspiring young players and Grabban may have been good at leading the line last season, but it is possible that an even better striker will now come to the club, presuming that Lewis does sign for Cardiff. Even if he turned the Welsh club town and held out for a Premiership club, the signs are that others would be in for him now.

Lewis has helped the club not just with his goals,
but also his increasing value. I can't blame AFCB from cashing in.

Eddie Howe likes a powerful running striker and Grabban had that in abundance. Where he looks for a new strike partner for Kermorgant will be the main discussion for Bournemouth fans now. I am sure he would love to see one of the other current strikers at the club grab their opportunity, but I am confident that Eddie Howe will go into the market for another striker. 

I believe Eddie Howe new Grabban would be one player that would be very hard for the club to keep this summer and at least he has been given since January to start looking around to see who might be available in this window. The important thing will be to replace Lewis with quality as that will show that AFCB are a club moving forward. What I don't want them to do though is to pay over the odds for a player that does not have the pedigree to move the club forward. It's a test of Eddie's scouting team and it's part of the business that separates the good clubs from the not so good ones.

Whatever the impact of Grabban's seemingly imminent departure, the aim will be to lessen the blow and to even try and make it into a positive. If things stay the same they tend to go stale over time and what works well one season may not be as effective the next. But Lewis has done well and if that means a move for him, and a bigger wage bill, he has earned it. I wish him all the best.