Chris Perry learned the rudiments of “backs-to-the-wall” defensive football, as a teenager with Wimbledon’s “Crazy” Gang under Dave Bassett. His education continued as the Dons progressed to the Premier League in the formative years of that competition.A £4m transfer took him to Tottenham, where his reputation as a hard-to-shake-off centre-back earned him the nickname of “The Rash”.

On the small side for the role, he more than made up for that with his pace and reading of the game.

In order to cope with the likes of Duncan Ferguson and Peter Crouch, you need to “use your brain a bit,” he has explained, and “pick and choose when to jump early.” He coped well enough to inspire talk of an England call-up. But a slipped disc put his career on hold and he then moved, within the Premiership, to Charlton. After a season in the Championship with West Brom, he joined League One Luton. He was playing regularly for the Hatters in 2007-08 as they slid, with a 10-point deduction, towards relegation.

But then he was offered Championship football, on loan to Nigel Pearson’s Southampton.“It was like being thrown a lifeline,” Chris explained in an early interview for the Saints programme – so he “grabbed it with both hands.” He became 35 during his loan-spell, yet he “grabbed” his opportunity so well that – even though Pearson was soon succeeded by Jan Poortvliet, with a brief to bring on youth – he was offered a full-time contract. He contributed his experience to the cause for another two seasons, during which the Saints were relegated. His swansong came at Wembley, shortly before his 37th birthday, in the JPT Final.

In 2011, Chris participated in the London marathon – raising funds for motor neurone disease, the illness from which he had lost his mother when he was 18 – and took up a coaching post at Dagenham & Redbridge, working with the U-16s. He has undertaken his UEFA coaching badges and has completed his UEFA A Coaching Licence and now works as a summariser and football pundit talkSPORT and BT Sport.