Grimes admits feeling 'an imposter' as Coventry end 24-year Premier League exile

Matt Grimes has admitted he feels like “a bit of an imposter” celebrating Coventry City’s return to the Premier League, acknowledging that the club’s 24-year absence from the top flight meant far more to long-suffering supporters than it ever could to him as a relative newcomer.

Grimes joined Coventry in January 2024 and was part of the side that sealed promotion with a 1-1 draw at Blackburn in April, confirming the Championship title with 11 points to spare over second place. The captain told FourFourTwo that the scale of what the club had been through — relegation in 2001, a slide to League Two in 2017, years of groundsharing, ownership uncertainty, and a play-off final defeat — made the achievement difficult for him to fully claim as his own.

“The club have been down to League Two, had to groundshare, all of that,” Grimes said. “So I feel like a bit of an imposter talking about it, because I haven’t endured it the same as the fans have. But to give that back on that night when we got the club promoted in front of 7,000 away fans, who travelled all the way to Blackburn on a Friday night, it was very, very fitting.”

For Grimes personally, the promotion also ends a decade-long wait to return to the Premier League. He made just four top-flight appearances for Swansea City after joining from Exeter, and spent the intervening years working his way back to the elite level.

Despite Coventry having come close to promotion under both Mark Robins and Frank Lampard in recent seasons, Grimes insists the manner of this title win deserves proper recognition. “When teams come down from the Premier League, it’s normal that all the bookmakers have them to be top two or top six,” he said. “So to win the league like we did, 11 points ahead of second… I don’t think people will realise the magnitude of it until maybe a couple of years down the line. It was a season where most of what we touched turned to gold.”