Norwich City never got striker curse which affected Reading FC and Aston Villa | OneFootball

When Norwich signed Lewis Grabban in 2015, the striker helped get them back to the Premier League, but he couldn't repeat it after he left.

Norwich City had rebuilding work to do in the summer of 2014, following relegation from the Premier League, and one £3 million signing would help them get back there.

The Canaries had finished the 2013/14 season relegated in 18th place in the Premier League, ending a period of three years in the top flight.

That summer, one player stood out more than most as just the player that manager Neil Adams needed. Lewis Grabban had scored 22 goals in 44 Championship games for Bournemouth throughout the 2013/14 season and Norwich's biggest problem the previous season had been scoring goals; they'd managed just 28 in their 38 League matches. They paid £3 million for his services.

Grabban plays a full part in getting Norwich back into the Premier League

Grabban hit the ground running, scoring his first goal for his new club on his home debut against Watford. But things wouldn't go entirely according to plan for Norwich that season. Manager Neil Adams resigned his position in January 2015, and Alex Neil was brought in to replace him.

And although the Canaries, as a club freshly relegated from the Premier League, might have been expecting to challenge for one of the two automatic promotion places, these were occupied by Grabban's former club Bournemouth, and Watford.

Figures from Transfermarkt

But the goals did keep flowing. He scored 12 league goals that season from 36 League appearances for them, 13 of which came from the bench. Norwich finished the season in third place and had to settle for the play-offs, and they got through a feisty semi-final against local rivals Ipswich with a 4-2 win over two legs.

At Wembley, early goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond gave them a 2-0 win against Middlesbrough and a swift return to the Premier League. Grabban was on the bench for this match, replacing Cameron Jerome with 16 minutes to play. His key involvement in the game came at the opposite end of the pitch to normal, blocking a Daniel Ayala header on the goal-line to preserve Norwich's two-goal lead.

Grabban couldn't repeat Norwich play-off success with Reading or Villa

Grabban's time at Carrow Road wouldn't last much longer. His former club Bournemouth had been promoted into the top flight for the first time in their history, and they wanted to re-sign him. Having made three bids for him, he reportedly left the Norwich team hotel prior to a League Cup match against Rotherham United in August 2015 and later had to apologise to supporters for his behaviour.

When a player is unsettled in this way, it's often the best thing to do, to move them on at the earliest available opportunity. Grabban would go on to make just six appearances for Norwich in the first half of the 2015/16 season, scoring one goal, and when the January 2016 transfer window opened he returned to Dean Court for £7 million.

But his second spell with the club was nowhere near as successful as his first had been. He failed to score in 15 appearances throughout the second half of the 2015/16 season, and by January 2017 he was being sent on loan back to the Championship, to Reading.

But Norwich supporters unhappy at the nature of his departure from their club would at least get a little cheer from what happened next. Grabban may have played a full role in their team's play-off final success in 2015, but he couldn't repeat it over two successive seasons following that Bournemouth loan.

Still out of favour under Eddie Howe as Bournemouth continued to hold their own in the Premier League, he was sent out on loan again to Reading in the January transfer window with just three Premier League appearances under his belt for the Cherries that season.

But his time at the Madjeski Stadium was a success. He scored three times in 16 games as the Royals pushed into the play-offs and was in the team that was beaten by Huddersfield in the play-off final on penalty kicks.

He was withdrawn after 74 minutes in that match, and the post-match reviews were mixed, with fan site The Tilehurst End giving him 6/10, saying that "he looked lively and led the line well alongside Yann" and mentioning that it "will be interesting if the club decides to try and bring him back".

The following season, he found himself on loan again, but it wasn't at Reading. This time he went to Sunderland, where he scored 12 in 20 matches. It was meant to be a season-long loan, but that was curtailed in January, and he went to Aston Villa for the second half of the season instead. Again, his team was successful. He scored eight in 15 games as Villa pushed into the Championship play-offs, but again there was disappointment once there.

Villa beat Middlesbrough 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals, only to be beaten 1-0 by Fulham at Wembley. Grabban played a full 90 minutes in the final this time, but again to little effect. After the match, the Express & Star gave him another 6/10 rating, saying: "Was left far too isolated in the first half. Held the ball up well with his back to goal, but looked tentative when he had found himself with space to run at defenders. Lost out to Tim Ream in the air."

That summer, Bournemouth sold him to Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee, which was reported as £6m. He'd eventually settle at The City Ground and go on to make 144 League appearances for Forest between 2018 and 2022, scoring 54 goals. An unsuccessful move to Saudi Arabia, which ended before a FIFA tribunal, followed before he hung up his boots.

Norwich supporters, then, will forever be grateful that the play-off final curse which afflicted him at Reading and Villa never applied to them.