3 reasons Taiwo Awoniyi will win Coventry City fans over

Super Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi has already begun repaying the £9 million fee Coventry City paid Nottingham Forest for his signature last month, Afrik-Foot reports.

The 29-year-old joined Frank Lampard’s newly promoted side last month, ending a four-year spell at the City Ground during which he scored 23 goals in 103 appearances across all competitions.

His Coventry start has been the opposite of a slow one. After a 20-minute cameo off the bench in the opening-day 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, Awoniyi scored inside three minutes of his first start against Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup second round, then set up Jack Rudoni for a second, in a 4-2 win that Lampard praised as evidence “we saw the qualities” of the player they had signed.

He then started against Hull City, and offered glimpses of his quality but those chances weren’t converted as the Tigers clinched their second win of the Premier League season.

Away from his heroics on the pitch, Awoniyi’s character at City Ground has already given him a precedent that Coventry will enjoy their new striker.

3 reasons Taiwo Awoniyi will win Coventry City fans over

1. His Nottingham Forest send-off

The clearest sign of how Coventry supporters will come to feel about Awoniyi is the way Nottingham Forest fans said goodbye to him.

His departure from the City Ground drew an out-pouring of love, thanks and well wishes from virtually every supporter, along with his teammates and manager, the kind of send-off usually reserved for one-club legends rather than players moving on after four seasons.

Farewell messages from those who knew T best. 🥹 pic.twitter.com/RUpBEU4EoH

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) August 17, 2026

Players who leave one fan base with that emotional debt do not usually take long to build the same relationship at the next one.

Coventry City are getting a striker who has already proved he can become that kind of player at a Premier League club.

2. He is a proven big-game finisher against big teams

The Sky Blues’ Premier League survival will be decided in fixtures against the top half of the table, and Awoniyi’s numbers against those sides are exactly the profile a newly promoted club needs.

He has scored three goals in six career meetings against Arsenal, the reigning Premier League champions and Coventry’s opening-day opponents.

That is a better ratio against the Gunners than any of Coventry’s existing attacking options, including Ellis Simms and Haji Wright.

The wider pattern from his Nottingham Forest years supports the same point. Awoniyi was Forest’s decisive figure across their 2022/23 survival campaign, scoring the winning or equalising goals in matches that kept the club in the Premier League.

Coventry, facing exactly the same survival mathematics this season, are inheriting a player whose CV boasts what they need to survive in the English top-flight.

3. His debut start showed glimpses

The final reason will be the simplest one for Coventry supporters to see with their own eyes, and it is that the former Union Berlin striker scores goals.

Awoniyi’s first start for Coventry produced a goal within three minutes, when he showed composure to finish after Caleb Yirenkyi’s sublime flick sent him through on goal, and an assist for Rudoni within moments of that opener.

Two direct goal contributions inside his opening ten minutes of first-team football as a starter is the sort of ratio that gets a striker adopted quickly by his new supporters.

The underlying skill on show, the movement to reach Yirenkyi’s pass, the calm finish under pressure, the immediate awareness to set up the next chance, tells Coventry fans everything they need to know about why Lampard personally pushed for his signature once Coventry secured promotion.

Coventry supporters have waited 25 years for a Premier League return. In Taiwo Awoniyi, they have inherited a striker whose previous club still speaks of him as the reason they survived their return to the top flight, and one whose record against the biggest sides is solid.

The template for how this relationship builds already exists. Forest fans loved him because he delivered when the stakes were highest and because he behaved, in and out of the dressing room, like the kind of player supporters want to associate with their club.

Coventry fans are about to find out that the same qualities travel with him.

The Premier League will decide how far Awoniyi can take Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues this season.

What is already clear is that the emotional relationship with the supporters is going to arrive well before the final matchday.