It took a while for Yorkshire-born Graeme Murty to find his best position – in which he then performed so well as to be capped by Scotland, the land of his father’s birth. He had arrived at Reading, newly-relegated to the third-tier, after five seasons at that level with York City. He was a winger who occasionally operated as a full-back, until Reading’s manager, Alan Pardew, played him only as a right-back in 2001-02, as Reading won promotion. A second promotion followed, under Steve Coppell, in 2004. Now captaining the Royals in the Premiership,

Graeme was voted their best-ever right-back in a 2005 poll of fans. And his progress was recognised by Scotland – four times.

That progress was limited, though, by a succession of calf injuries – seven in all. In 2008-09, he played no League football at all for Reading. A loan spell at Championship Charlton was intended to help his recovery but he picked up another injury.

When Reading decided, that summer, not to renew his contract, he was sad, but “not bitter”. And then Southampton, newly-relegated to League One, offered him a one-year contract. He accepted, reasoning that he’d be joining “a massive club” – third-tier status notwithstanding – situated near enough to his Thatcham home; and he felt that, at 34, he still had “something to offer.”

By the time the season kicked-off, Mark Wotte, who’d signed him, had been replaced by Pardew, Graeme’s significant mentor at Reading. It was instantly apparent that his “something to offer” included an astute reading of the game, comfort on the ball and accurate distribution. But it didn’t last. In only his fourth game, he ruptured two ligaments that attached his ankle to his lower leg. He returned for a handful of games before Christmas, but that was that.

He was released, come the summer. Even so, he was determined to see whether he might play again and was grateful for permission to use the medical/training facilities at Staplewood. The outcome was 20 minutes for Southampton’s Reserves in October 2011. By then, he was hedging his bets between punditry and coaching, having become a regular on the BBC’s Late Kick Off and a coach at Basingstoke’s Queen Mary’s College. His mind was made up – for the moment at least – when he accepted the position, in February 2012, of assistant youth-development coach with the Saints Academy. In recent years Graeme has twice been named caretaker manager at Ibrox and then was given the job permanently for five months.