Danny Graham has come a long way since the days when he was playing for Chester-le-Street youth team in between fitting conservatories and windows. "A whirlwind" is how the Swansea City striker describes a journey that has delivered some exhilarating highs, including making his Premier League debut at Old Trafford at the age of 19, as well as some crushing lows, such as the day he picked up the phone and the voice at the other end told him a former team-mate had taken his own life.
Listening to this likeable Geordie rowing back over the past nine years, it feels as if his career has been a wild graph of peaks and troughs, during which he has come to terms with being released by Middlesbrough four years after being plucked from non-league football, learned how to cope with being a centre-forward who has gone 19 matches without a goal and enjoyed the accolades that accompany being the most prolific scorer in the Championship.
Against that backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising that Swansea's £3.5m club-record signing from Watford never lost any sleep when questions were being asked after he had failed to score in his first five Premier League matches. "When things aren't going too well, I don't let myself get down about it like I used to," Graham says. "That goes back to my Carlisle days, when I had that spell of not scoring. I was young at the time and I was sort of hiding. But I've learned from that."
Feast followed the famine at Swansea, as Graham scored in all four Premier League matches in October to deliver on his promises. "I always said I would get goals," he says, ahead of Sunday's home fixture against Aston Villa. "Five games went by and I didn't score, and there are going to be questions because I was the club record signing. But once I got that first goal, I knew I would go on to score more and I'm confident I'll do that throughout the season."
Graham has a vital role to play in a team in which he is the focal point of the attack, and anyone who watched him against Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic last Saturday will not be surprised to learn his Prozone stats showed he covered as much ground as anyone. Yet it was also noticeable in the Manchester United game that Swansea, for all their precise passing through defence and midfield, spent a lot of time going sideways rather than forward.
The calibre of opposition may have had something to do with that, although, if there is one criticism of a Swansea team that move the ball around beautifully, it is that their measured approach sometimes fails to deliver enough efforts on goal. Swansea have had more possession than all but three clubs, yet they are in the bottom five when it comes to shots attempted and Graham, on average, touches the ball less than any of his team-mates.
"That doesn't surprise me at all. And do you know what, that's fine," Graham says, running his eyes over the figures. "I do my work in the top half of the field. We need to keep the ball and we need to build from the back. Once the ball does come up there, as long as I'm in there, I can't complain. If there were no balls coming in and they weren't providing chances, maybe I would have a word. But until that happens, I'm happy with the way we are playing.
"We play out from the back and keep the ball through midfield. Against Wolves, we kept the ball for ages before the second goal and I was sitting in midfield at one point – and then the ball goes over the top and, because we moved about so much, they didn't seem to know where we were. There are positives and a few negatives [with our style], in that you don't get as much of the ball – but once the ball gets up there, as long as I'm scoring, I don't mind."
Graham has been doing that for as long as he can remember, but it was not until he caught the eye of Middlesbrough, while playing for Chester-le-Street in 2002, that he got the crack at the big time that enabled him to leave his day job. "I was fitting conservatories and windows at the time. I got the phone call to say I was getting the YTS at Middlesbrough and the best phone call came afterwards, when I told work I was quitting," says Graham, laughing.
The 26-year-old smiles when asked what he was like at work. "I was a cowboy," he says, grinning. "I was just learning the trade and I got it wrong a few times. It took me a while to get used to it because I had come straight out of school. I was working eight to five, maybe later sometimes. The next thing, there I was, a 17-year-old boy, going into training everyday with [Jimmy Floyd] Hasselbaink and [Mark] Viduka. It was brilliant."
Graham scored prolifically in a youth side that included Adam Johnson and David Wheater, but the path to the first-team was blocked by the same names that had inspired him when he arrived. He came on as a substitute at Manchester United and made 15 Premier League appearances in between loan spells at five clubs, before Gareth Southgate let him go. Middlesbrough fans have come to regret that decision, but Graham betrays no bitterness. "Looking back, the time was definitely right for me to move on," he says. "Gareth said: 'You need to play football and get confidence again'."
He took Southgate's advice, joined Carlisle and, despite a barren run in the middle of his first season, made enough of an impression to earn a move to Watford in 2009, where he scored 38 league goals in 91 appearances. It was during his second season at Vicarage Road that Graham received shattering news that Dale Roberts, the Rushden & Diamonds goalkeeper with whom he played at Middlesbrough, had killed himself.
"I remember getting the call to say what had happened and for the first 10 minutes I wouldn't believe it because you know the guy and how bubbly he was," Graham says. "Then it really starts to sink in and you think what he must have been going through. It's so sad. We were really close. When we were young boys, I used to stay at his house on a weekend and I used to pick him up for training. His mam, Isabelle, still sends me a text before every game."
She is not the only one delighted to see Graham excelling on the biggest stage. "My dad, Eddie, comes down from Newcastle to watch me for more or less every game and my mam, nan, brother and sister all come as well. I'm sure they're proud when they see me walking out at big stadiums.
"It's been a whirlwind few years, with a lot of highs and a lot of downs, but I'm sat here talking to you as a Premier League player and that's what I always wanted."
