Graham: Daniel Anthony William (Danny)

2006-2006 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Striker

Born: Gateshead: 12-08-1985

Debut v Hull City (a) (substitute): 01-04-06

5’11” 12st 5lb (2007)

He was brought up in Leam Lane in Gateshead and went to Heworth Grange Comprehensive School and represented Gateshead Schools as a schoolboy. He was initially at Chester-le-Street Town, in the Northern Premier League, before joining Middlesbrough in 2003. Towards the end of the season he scored twenty-one goals in twenty games for the Under-Nineteen side, and got his first action in March 2003. An England Youth International, he signed a contract for Middlesbrough in March 2004 and saw several loan periods, initially with Darlington, from March 2004, where he made seven starts and two more games from the bench, scoring twice. He made his Middlesbrough debut as a eighty-seventh minute substitute against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 3rd october 2004 as Boro got a 1-1 draw. He then was given three more substitute appearances in late January/early February, getting fifty minutes play before on 27th February 2005 he was given another nine minutes and he scored his first and only goal for Boro as they drew 2-2 with Charlton Athletic at the Riverside. He played another six games as a substitute before the end of the 2004-05 season getting another seventy-seven minutes playing time. He did get another seventy-seven minutes in the UEFA Cup Forth Round ties with Sporting Lisbon, when he started in the home leg and played for fifty-two minutes before being substituted and in the second leg in Lisbon he came on for the final twenty-five minutes as a substitute. His next appearance was when he came on in the last minute as Boro beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Riverside on 10th September 2005. Then he was loaned to Derby County from November 2005, which saw him play fourteen games, three of which were from the bench, without scoring. He went next to Leeds United, from 23rd March 2006, where, with Richard Cresswell injured, he was cover for Rob Hulse and was needed to keep United on course for the CCCL Play-offs. He made just one start, in the final home game with Crewe Alexandra, but, after putting himself about to good effect, he was taken off after suffering a groin strain. He returned to the Riverside and came on as a seventy-second minute substitute in the 0-1 home defeat to Everton on 29th April 2006 and in the final match of the season with Fulham at Craven Cottage he was on from the start but was substituted in the eightieth minute as Boro went down 1-0. The following season he went to Blackpool, from August 2006, where he played four times, three as a substitute, and scored once. He then came back to the Riverside and came on as an eightieth minute substitute t Watord on 4th Novembe 2006, in what proveo be his final apperance for Middlesbrough. He was next loaned to Carlisle United from January 2007, where he scored seven goals in eleven games. While with Middlesbrough he made one start and fourteen appearances from the bench and scored once in the League and made one start and one substitute appeance in the UEFA Cup, but they decided to release him on 10th May 2007. In reality Boro were well supplied in the strkers' department, with Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Aiyegbeni Yakubu in front of him in the queue. He finally signed for Carlisle in June 2007 ona two year contract. Unfortunately, Graham did not maintain the same scoring rate after signing for Carlisle. After being the League One leading goalscorer from the start of the season, he had a goal drought from 13th October 2007 until 2nd February 2008 and fell away badly. He made his one hundredth career appearance playing for Carlisle United against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on 3rd March 2008, scoring the winning goal in a 1–0 win. After a good first half to the 2008-09 season with Carlisle, in which he had scored thirteen goals by Christmas, he was linked with a £250,000 move to either Preston North End or Huddersfield Town, but it did not eventuate. After several failed attempts by Carlisle to renew Graham's contract, on 2nd July 2009 he joined Watford FC on a free transfer on a two year contract. A fee of £200,000 was decided by a tribunal. After signing for Carlisle after his loan period he scored twenty-nine goals in eighty-nine games, of which eleven were off the bench, he also scored once in five F.A Cup starts, one in three League Cup starts and twice in five play-off finals' starts. He made a good start to his Watford career, scoring on debut and netting six times in his first nine games. At the end of the 2009-10 season he had scored fourteen League goals from thirty-seven starts and nine more from the bench and made one appearance in the F.A. Cup and two in the League Cup for Watford. He stayed for two seasons before Watford cashed in on their prize asset. After scoring thirty-eight goals in ninety-one League games, of which nine were as a substitute, one goal in two starts and one game from the bench in the F.A. Cup, two goals in four League Cup games of which one was as a substitute, they accepted an offer of £3.5 million from newly promoted Swansea City on 7th June 2011, as the Swans beat their own club transfer record to sign him on a four year contract, after he had been named in the PFA team of the year in the previous season. He made a fine start with his new club and had scored seven goals in the EPL and two in the F.A. Cup as he started to repay his large transfer fee.