Grabbi Gone..

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Reports from the Ancona official site are saying that Ciccio Grabbi has signed for the Italian club on a 2 and a half year contract.

The story of Grabbi has been a far from happy one for Rovers.  Signed in the summer of 2001 for almost £7million, Grabbi was the club's big money signing following the promotion back to the Premiership.  However, despite being the top scorer in Serie B the previous season, Grabbi never really adjusted to life in the English topflight, and showed distinct signs of finding the pace of the game here a little daunting.

Despite some very unfortunate misses, especially against Manchester United early in his Rovers' career when with more assistance from 'lady luck' he could have had a couple of goals, very little return was being witnessed by the club for the massive financial outlay.    Ciccio soon found himself consigned to the reserve team and then returned to Italy on loan to Messina.

On the occassions he did play for the first team, he appeared popular with the majority of the Ewood faithful, perhaps hoping that at some point his (and the club's) luck would change and he would demonstrate the ability that attracted Souness to him in the first place.   Unfortunately, such events never really transpired and the final straw appears to have been in the home leg of the UEFA Cup match against Genclerbirligi where the Italian missed a hatfull of chances.

Rovers career:

League 30 appearances (inc 19 as sub), 2 goals.

Cup competitions : 8 appearance (inc 5 sub), 2 goals.

European matches : 3 apperanaces (inc 1 sub), 1 goal.