Striker off to Brentford...
WALSALL Football Club can today confirm that Will Grigg has joined Brentford.The Northern Ireland striker’s contract at the Banks’s Stadium expired yesterday and, despite being offered a lucrative four-year contract to remain at WS1, Grigg, who was plucked from Solihull College as a teenager, has chosen to make the move to Griffin Park.
As he is under-24, Walsall FC will be entitled to compensation for the Player however, at the time of writing, no fee has been agreed with Brentford. Should this remain the case, the fee will be decided by tribunal.
“We are extremely disappointed to lose Will,” explained Saddlers’ boss, Dean Smith. “We had a number of chats and started negotiating a new deal with him many months ago.
“We as a club did everything possible to keep will at the Banks’s Stadium. We offered him a four-year contract; the best contract we have ever offered to a player in League One.
“However, he has chosen to move to Brentford.
“I feel his Agent hasn’t done him justice. He should be getting him a move to a league higher such as the Championship but life moves on and we will replace Will.
“I’d like to wish Will all the best but, as he’s move to a club at our level, in League One, I can’t at this moment in time.”
After coming through the ranks, Grigg signed his first professional contract in the summer of 2009.
Under The Saddlers’ guidance his game continued to develop. Winning the Young Player of the Season award in 2010/11 and the Goal of the Season award 12 months later, he has also impressed for the Northern Ireland Under-21s and was handed his senior debut in a friendly against Holland in the summer of 2012.
He has remained a regular in the full Northern Ireland squad ever since and finished the 2012/13 campaign as the club’s top scorer with 20 goals in 48 appearances.