Football transfer being paid in seats, 35 years on

He describes it as one of the most unusual football transfer "add-on" stories of all time.

Thirty-five years after Neil Cox moved from Scunthorpe United to Aston Villa, the Birmingham club is still honouring part of the deal – in seats.

In addition to the £400,000 fee, Villa agreed to throw in 2,000 seats for the Iron's ground at Glanford Park – and a fresh batch arrived this summer.

Cox said: "When I do after dinner speeches and tell them about the deal, no one believes me. We're talking about the seats and not the transfer. Crazy."

Cox was an up-and-coming defender who had made just 17 league appearances for Scunthorpe when he moved to Villa Park in 1991.

At the time, the fee was a record for the Iron.

Decades on, when some old seats needed to be replaced at Glanford Park this summer, Julie Taylor, a liaison officer for the club, was able to recall the finer details of the deal.

"I heard Villa were revamping their stadium," she explained. "I called their secretary and asked, 'Is there any chance we could have some seats, 35 years later, after selling Neil Cox to you?'

"He said, 'Yes, we're just going to throw them out'."

Taylor quickly arranged a trip to Birmingham.

"We went down on a Sunday, hoisted about two hundred seats in the back of the van," she said. "I crammed in as many as I could and then drove home.

"Thirty-five years later, we're still friends. I think it's great they're still helping us out as clubs should do."

It helps that both teams play in claret and blue.

"We've got a connection there and we always will have and the seats are just brilliant," Taylor added.

The new blue seats have allowed the initials of the club to be spelled out in the away end at Glanford Park.

So has the debt been settled now? "Maybe we'll go back again," Taylor joked.

Cox won the League Cup with Villa in 1994 and went on to play for Middlesbrough, Bolton and Watford, among others.

He returned to Scunthorpe as manager in 2020 and spent 15 months in charge.

His transfer to Villa has become club folklore and he said he was pleased it was the gift that kept on giving.

"This club means a lot to me – I've played for them and managed them. It has been through some tough times.

"If you can get help from people, I think you should and I think it's brilliant for Aston Villa to help out."

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