Coventry City: Frank Lampard issues Matt Grimes claim that will make hard reading for Swansea City supporters | OneFootball

Grimes made a mid-season switch to the Sky Blues, and Lampard has hailed his impact

Coventry City manager Frank Lampard has hailed January signing Matt Grimes as they get set to take on Sunderland in the Championship play-off finals.

Grimes was Lampard's only real significant signing in his first transfer window as Coventry manager, with the Sky Blues shelling out a fee reported to be between £3.5 million and £4 million for his services.

Since coming off the bench for his Championship club debut against Leeds United, Grimes has started every single game in the middle of the park for City, and has quickly become one of the more influential players in Lampard's starting 11.

Frank Lampard hails Coventry City's Matt Grimes after £3.5m - £4m January transfer

Despite strong competition in the middle of the park, including Ben Sheaf, Victor Torp and Josh Eccles, Grimes has made a starting spot his own, and he's done it very quickly too.

And Lampard has heaped praise on the 29-year-old, who has become his manager's go-to at half-time of matches as he has the best view of the pitch from his position.

“As a coach, you need good players,” Lampard told CoventryLive.

“You can be the best coach in the world but you need good players and you need to pass messages on to the players, and Grimesy is like the brain of the team.

"He’s so smart in terms of the positions he takes up.

“People might think that he’s playing deep, and he is sometimes to release full-backs and people around him, and he always understands when to drop out.

“He’s a great lad off the pitch, he’s engaging on it and he gets the game.

"I speak to him at half-time sometimes for the view from on pitch and he’s very ahead of his time for that, so he’s been a really big signing for us – a really, really big signing in terms of the impact he’s had in the centre of the team, so I am delighted with him.

“It was a big recruitment and we were all together on it and we got him, so he’s been big for us.”

If there is one group of supporters who are entitled to ask questions about this transfer, it'll be those of Grimes' former club, Swansea City.

He signed for the Welsh outfit for £1.75m from Exeter City in 2015 and went on to make over 300 appearances for the Swans, becoming their club captain in 2019.

Grimes had talked before of his "deep connection he feels with Swansea City and the local community". It looked like the perfect relationship between player and club.

But by the time he left, the move was being described as having "sent a shockwave through the club".

Wales Online reported at the end of January that the news had been "greeted with dismay by supporters" and that there was a suggestion that it had gone down badly with the rest of the squad.

Swansea were reportedly "taken aback" by Grimes' determination to move to the CBS Arena, but Coventry were also set to blow them out of the water when it came to his wages, meaning a transfer was always on the table.

For a player of his calibre though, Swansea may be frustrated that they were only able to recoup £4 million for his services - age may come into that thinking given he is now 29, but on pure ability, Grimes is one of the best midfielders in the Championship.