Back in 1991, Aston Villa signed defender Neil Cox from Scunthorpe for £400,000 plus 2,000 claret and blue seats, an unusual sweetener for the transfer at the time. That original arrangement resurfaced this summer as Villa began ripping out their North Stand ahead of a rebuild that will eventually take Villa Park's capacity to 50,000, leaving thousands of seats destined for scrap.
Scunthorpe's liaison officer, Julie Taylor, spotted the opportunity and got in touch to ask for some as a replacement for the 9,000-capacity ground's ageing stock.
"We weren't actually owed any! I was a bit cheeky and just asking if we could have some more," she told BBC Radio West Midlands. "It wasn't that we were actually owed any more, I just thought we could do with them. [Ours] are broken. They're brittle after all these years. They break, fans break them. We could do with some more. We're pretty desperate so there's no harm in me asking."
Villa said yes, and Taylor collected the seats herself.
"They said they were just going to destroy them. I was a bit shocked when they said yes," she said. "I borrowed our van and went to pick them up. I just crammed it with as many as I could get in. I came with a friend. It's a two-and-a-half hour journey. We drove onto the pitch. One of the contractors met me there because it was a Sunday, which was better because it was quiet. We picked up all the seats, rammed them in the van and it took quite a while because I had to dismantle a few of them. Then we drove back to Scunthorpe again."
Around 200 of the blue seats have since been arranged to spell out SUFC in the ground's National League away end, with some spare for travelling fans. Taylor had hoped to make a second trip before the seats ran out.
"I would have gone back but they've gotten rid of them now," she said. "He [the contractor] did ring me back and ask if I wanted to come again. It was the time factor and I couldn't get there. But never mind. Maybe in another 20 or 30 years somebody else can go."
Cox, now 54, went on to make more than 50 appearances for Villa — including in their 1994 League Cup final win over Manchester United — before a £1m move to Middlesbrough that same year made him the first player to break that fee mark for the Teesside club. He also played for Bolton, Watford, Cardiff and Crewe Alexandra, and returned to Scunthorpe as manager in 2020. He has since been back to see the seats himself, according to Taylor.
"Oh yes, he came down to the ground last week to look at them," she said. "We had a bit of a chat and he was amazed that this saga is continuing after all these years."