DANNY GRAHAM EXCLUSIVE: Don't panic... I'll end my nine-month goal drought

It took six seconds in Steve Bruce’s company for Danny Graham to confirm he wanted to move to Hull City.

‘I flew from Sunderland’s training camp in Italy to Newcastle and jumped straight in a taxi to Hull,’ Graham said. ‘I just had a daft top and tracksuit bottoms on for travelling. I walked in and he hammered me for the tracksuit. I just thought, “Yeah, I like that sort of guy”.’

Bruce has an even more vivid recollection of their first meeting: ‘He looked like a tramp. I just said to him, “Some lads come to meet a new manager and at least they make a bit of an effort”. He looked like he’d slept in his gear.’



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Missed chance: Danny Graham looks dejected after missing a chance against Manchester City

First impressions aside, Bruce has no doubts about the loan signing he believes will score the goals to keep his team in the Barclays Premier League.

Except that he has signed a striker who has failed to score since January, after his £6million move from Swansea City to Sunderland fell flat. That makes 1,146 minutes and counting without finding the net for the Newcastle-supporting Geordie Sunderland fans greeted with suspicion.

Graham doesn’t shy away from talking about the drought, though. ‘You can’t sulk because you will dig yourself down even deeper and lose confidence. I don’t listen to the good stuff and I don’t listen to the bad stuff. I just get on with it.

‘I am always confident I will score goals. It just didn’t happen at Sunderland. At Swansea I didn’t score for 11 games and still ended up with 12 league goals. Once one goes in, that’ll be it.

‘Fans only look at the goals and assume you’re not trying. Life goes on and this is a fresh start. A lot went on at Sunderland with all the Newcastle rubbish and “He hasn’t scored”. It is nice not going into games and training every day with that stuff on my mind.

Not impressed: Steve Bruce says he thought Graham looked like a tramp when he first met him

GRAHAM OUT IN THE WILDNERNESS 1,146 Minutes since Danny Graham last scored a Premier League goal — for Swansea against Aston Villa on January 1. 20 Games without a goal for Graham in all competitions.

£5m Amount Sunderland paid for Graham in January. 3 Clubs Graham has played for in 2013 — Swansea, Sunderland and Hull.

12 League goals Graham scored for Swansea in 2011-12 — the third most prolific English striker.

‘If I’d scored in those first two or three games it might have been different, but it wasn’t to be. He (Di Canio) let me go on loan, so I move on.’



In truth, Graham had few chances in a struggling team but is the first to admit he should have taken those. His best game was the 3-0 win at Newcastle but it was clear Paolo Di Canio would be giving his No 9 shirt to someone else this season.

Graham said: ‘Steve Bruce is good — a proper football man who loves the game. Hands on, good sharp training, a lot of possession and work on the strikers. He likes the lads to have a laugh but at the same time work hard and he has been superb with everyone. We’re all onside, definitely.

‘Foreign coaches have their own mentality on how players should go on in training and stuff. At Swansea, with Brendan (Rodgers) training was sharp: possession, drills, everything done for the players. A lot of the foreign coaches are “Shape this, shape that”.

New surroundings: Graham said he did not need anytime to decide to move to Hull

‘I would not shout anyone down for how they want their players to do things, but a lot of the managers I have worked with just let you get on with it and trust you. I think you see the benefits on the pitch.’



The move to Sunderland came after Michael Laudrup also decided that Graham’s knack for goalscoring had no place in his side. But Swansea went on to win the Capital One Cup and are playing in Europe this season. Time for the ‘regret’ question.

‘No regrets at all,’ said Graham, ‘None. I wasn’t playing and I probably wouldn’t have played in the final. Different managers have different ideas. I scored four in four and then Nathan Dyer played up front against Everton away in the fifth. I knew then I wasn’t going to be playing. You can’t put a winger up front when your striker’s scored four in four.

Not working out: Graham's move to Sunderland was not a sucess

In top form: Graham enjoyed sucess at Swansea

‘I could have quite happily sat around but I learned from a very young age you need to play. It’s massive and I knew it was time to leave.’



During that prolific first season at Swansea there was talk of a call-up from England, who were managed by Fabio Capello at the time. His successor, Roy Hodgson, has since picked Rickie Lambert. Graham is 28 and has taken a similarly roundabout route to the top flight as the Southampton striker.



Picked up from Chester-le-Street Town, after Sunderland rejected him, he was signed by Middlesbrough, loaned to Carlisle, sold to Watford, then on to Swansea. He scored 82 goals over six seasons.

All smiles: Graham is confident he will score goals at Hull

Graham has never believed the hype, and is not about to start now. He said: ‘In the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I just knew.

‘He came to games when we were scoring, and they were talking about Leon Britton and Nathan Dyer too. Then you find out Fraizer Campbell gets in, who had only played one game and scored one goal. After that I just thought, “It’s not going to happen”.’



Campbell is another former Sunderland striker who will be the panto villain today when Hull play Cardiff in a re-run of the dramatic game which sealed Hull’s promotion last season.

