Should Aston Villa be wary of signing Lewis Grabban permanently?

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Bournemouth could sell Lewis Grabban to Championship hopefuls Aston Villa, but they need Premier League promotion to fund the deal.

If Aston Villa earn promotion back to the Premier League this season, they will have a decision to make about Lewis Grabban.

According to the Birmingham Mail, a Villa side under pressure from Financial Fair Play can only afford to sign the Bournemouth loanee on a permanent basis if they are a top flight side next season.

Failure to win promotion will mean Aston Villa will stay in the Championship and Grabban would likely head back to the south coast.

But if Steve Bruce does lead Villa back to the Promised Land, that does not necessarily mean that the Midland giants should jump at the chance to extend Grabban’s stay at the club.

After all, this season has only exacerbated the feeling that the 30-year-old is a lethal Championship striker, but that the second tier is something of a glass ceiling.

He scored prolifically at this level during his first spell at Bournemouth, helped Norwich City go up in 2015 and has netted 16 times in 23 starts during spells at Villa and Sunderland this season.

But comparing this to Grabban’s Premier League record is like night and day. He managed just one goal in six games in the top flight for Norwich in the first half of 2015/16, before returning to Bournemouth for £7 million.

In two years contracted to Eddie Howe’s side, however, Grabban has not hit the net once in the top flight. If Villa do leave the Championship behind, they will need better than this archetypal second tier centre-forward.