The veteran striker played a key role in helping Nottingham Forest to be promoted back to the Premier League last season after 23 years.
He was hugely admired by Steve Cooper and Grabban stressed that the Nottingham Forest manager was in favour of keeping him at the club ahead of their return to the top flight this term.
The forward admitted that winning promotion with Nottingham Forest was an ambition and he wanted to stay for their Premier League journey as well, but he eventually left on a free transfer.
“As we celebrated at Wembley, my full intention was to sort something out. I wanted to have another crack at the Premier League with Forest”, Grabban told The Athletic.
“Prior to joining Forest, in every season bar one when I played in the Championship, I had been in teams that had either made it to the playoffs or been promoted.
“Always in my mind was the thought that I wanted to win promotion with Forest.
“That was all I ever looked at. That is one of the biggest frustrations for me — we did not manage to do that until last season.
“I was out of contract but I had already been discussing with the manager what his thoughts were.
“He wanted me to stay at the club and we discussed what I wanted… and we were in a similar place. I wanted to be with Forest.”
There were claims that Grabban wanted certain guarantees over regular game time but the forward refuted such suggestions.
He insisted that was not under discussion and claimed that had he stayed he would have been involved in each of the games they have played this season.
While not divulging the details, Grabban stressed that he and the club were just not on the same page over certain things and an agreement was not reached.
“I had seen people speculating that I had not been promised x-amount of game time or whatever.
“Nobody has ever promised me game time at any club. I have never asked for that.
“If you look at the season so far [in the Premier League], I believe I would have featured in every game for Forest, whether that be off the bench or starting.
“But it just did not come to fruition. We were not able to agree on an extension.
“It just didn’t go in the direction I thought it would to make the deal possible.”
The Jamaican left Nottingham Forest and England and joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli in the summer window.
