Expectations were high when David Prutton joined Southampton just before the transfer deadline in January 2003. “He was our No.1 pick,” Gordon Strachan explained, “for the type of player and person he is.” Blooded young by Nottingham Forest, the 21 year-old had already racked up nearly 150 League appearances and had accumulated 20 (of an eventual 25) England U-21 caps.

Southampton’s Director of Youth, Steve Wigley, was well-placed to vouch for David’s talent, having coached him from the age of 14 at Forest and then for the U-21s. FA Cup-tied when he arrived, David was unable to participate in the run to the Final. Although that was hardly conducive to inclusion in a fairly settled side, David came in, without so much as a warm-up in the Reserves, to play in every remaining Premiership game, starting in most of them.

Especially at home in central midfield, David could also play wide and even turned out at right-back for the Saints.

There were problems, though. For starters, he would have five different managers and two caretakers during his four-and-a-half seasons with the club. And he picked up two serious injuries: a broken toe; and then badly-torn ankle ligaments. The latter injury was sustained in an FA Cup win at Leicester in January 2006 and it kept him out until the last game of the season. He then aggravated the problem in a pre-season friendly and so missed the start of the 2006-07 campaign.The biggest problem, however, was of David’s own making. He was sent off, one year into his Southampton career, for catching ex-Saint Jeff Kenna with a forearm in a defeat at Birmingham.

But the most notorious incident occurred, another year on, in the relegation season of 2004-05, v Arsenal at St Mary’s. Just settling into his best form with the club, David was red-carded for the sixth time of his career.

At which point, he pushed referee Alan Wiley, thereby turning a fairly innocuous one-match ban into a 10-game suspension. Back for the final match of the season, having “trained harder than ever,” he lacked the match fitness to have any bearing on the result. The defeat by Manchester United relegated Southampton and marked the end of a top-flight career for a player who had promised so much. After a season-and-a-half in the Championship with Southampton, he moved around, at that level or below. His best spell was with Leeds. Latterly, a two-year contract with Sheffield Wednesday included being loaned to Scunthorpe but culminated in his playing in the last-day win that kept Wednesday in the Championship. All of which raises the question of why a player of his ability has made so few of his 400-odd appearances at the highest level. How much did his temperament contribute to his shortfall? David was sent off a dozen times, at least once for each of his clubs.

Yet interviewers have variously described him as likeable, articulate, intelligent, witty and bristling with leadership qualities. And since retiring in 2014 he has put such attributes to good use becoming a Sky TV’s main presenter of non-Premier League games. His partner Jenny and he have two children, doted on by Jenny’s father, ex-Saint Brian O’Neil.