Matt Grimes has revealed he had opportunities to leave Swansea City long before his high-profile move to Coventry City. The Swans were left stunned by the midfielder's exit in January 2025, although Grimes insists he never previously had any plans to leave south Wales.
However, he says the pain of previously missing out on opportunities to join Premier League sides was the main motivator behind his eventual exit.
Grimes on leaving Swansea
Grimes would go on to play a part in Coventry's rise to the play-offs that season under Frank Lampard, where they would miss out at the hands of Sunderland in the semi-finals. However, the Sky Blues would go up as champions the following season.
Nevertheless, until Coventry came calling, he says leaving Swansea was never an option.
"It was never in the plan to be honest with you," he told Ben Foster's Fozcast. "Obviously I'd spent 10 years there and I still had two-and-a-half years left on my contract. I'd just had the twins in the September. We'd just bought our house, our forever home in Swansea.
"Swansea's a beautiful place. Incredible. I grew up in Exeter. That's by the sea. Moved to Swansea. That's by the sea. We loved it there. Perfect place to raise a family.
"So it was never on the cards really to leave. I was 29 years old, settled and completely comfortable."
Coventry's ambition convinced him
Grimes said the phone rang from his agent just prior to January, around mid-December, with Coventry wanting to have a conversation. He noted Frank Lampard had just come in and they were wanting to kick on, with the club maybe mid-table, around 14th or 15th.
"As the conversations kind of developed, I spoke with the gaffer. Spoke with Dean Austin [sporting director]. Spoke with the chairman, and it was just the ambition," he said. "They were saying, 'we're not selling anyone this summer and we're going to have a real good go'.
"So you knew they were already on the rise, and I was saying to my agent at the time, 'Well I'm not sure, like I've been here a long time. It would take a lot to take me away from Swansea'."
Previous missed opportunities
Grimes says he previously had opportunities to leave the Swans for sides that would later go on to claim a place in the Premier League, including with former Swans boss Steve Cooper, who would seal promotion with Nottingham Forest in 2022, a year on from guiding Swansea to the play-off final. None of the moves ever materialised, and Grimes believes the chance of potentially going to the top flight with Lampard's side was one he couldn't ignore.
Nevertheless, he insists it was a difficult decision to make for him and his family.
"I was supposed to go to Watford," he added. "This is years ago, maybe seven years ago. Didn't for whatever reason. They went up. The following year, I was supposed to go to Fulham. Didn't. They went up.
"Then a year or two after that, I was supposed to go to Forest with Steve Cooper. Didn't. They went up.
"Swansea was a difficult one because I had Graham Potter for a year. Steve Cooper for two years. Russell Martin for two years. It felt like whenever we were just building to have a go at it something would be taken away, and no manager really stayed for more than two years."
Grimes said he asked his family whether to give it a crack, noting Coventry were ambitious and wanted him to be part of it. He weighed the risks of staying or leaving, thinking about whether Coventry might sign someone else and go up, or whether Swansea might spend money and go up instead.
"I'd not gone to all these places for one reason or another, and they've all ended up getting promoted," he said. "So I just thought 'I think we're going to have to give it a go'. We're going to have to step outside of our comfort zone to give it a crack."
Tapping up team-mates
Grimes revealed he'd also stealthily picked the brains of a couple of team-mates while weighing up the offer. "The club is huge, and I was like tapping it up a little bit," he said. "Cyrus Christie was at Swansea and without him knowing I was like 'Oh Cov's a decent place'. I knew he was a Cov lad. 'It's a big club isn't it'.
"And he's like 'yeah the club's massive'. Jamie Paterson used to go on about it all the time. 'Cov is huge, it's like a sleeping giant'. And because he's a Cov lad, you're like 'OK pal, whatever'.
"Then you come here and it's like 'wow, this club is massive'. The fanbase, everything about it is huge."
