What happened?
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.
Why it matters for Scunthorpe
What comes next?
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.
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?
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.'
Next fixture: vs Barrow (at home, 2027-02-16) (12th in the table).
[Image Prompt: A photograph of Julie Taylor, a liaison officer for Scunthorpe United, hoisting seats in the back of a van, with a Birmingham cityscape in the background, taken during her trip to Birmingham to collect the new seats from Aston Villa.]
