Having represented Spain at U-21 and U-23 levels and in the 1996 Olympics, Iñigo Idiakez was 30 when he left Spain for Championship Derby. George Burley, the manager who had enticed him to Pride Park, moved to St Mary’s during Southampton’s first season in that same division. As Burley strengthened his squad in the summer of 2006, Iñigo became the Saints’ first Spaniard since José Gallego made his solitary appearance in 1948.

An attacking, eye-pleasing midfielder who had enjoyed an injury-free career hitherto, Iñigo spent a disproportionate part of his two seasons with Southampton on the treatment table, thanks to problems with his achilles and hamstrings. His more memorable misfortune, though, was his spot-kick, with which his first season ended so anti-climactically. The Saints were in the Championship play-offs, facing Iñigo’s former club. Not long returned from a handful of games on loan at QPR, Iñigo was absent from the first leg, when Derby won 2-1 at St Mary’s, but came on as a sub late in the second leg. The Saints’ 3-2 win took the match to a shoot-out.

Iñigo stepped forward for what must surely be the loneliest place on a football field: the penalty-spot in a tie-breaker. With the Saints trailing 4-3 on penalties, his shot went over and Derby went to Wembley – and thence to the Premiership.

He battled through the next season in bursts between sessions with the physio. He was there at the end, as the Saints escaped relegation under Nigel Pearson, but his contract was now up.

He was coming 35, so maybe it would not have been renewed, even if the manager and the chairman had not departed in that turbulent summer of 2008. A trial in California didn’t work out. After coaching positions in Spain, he re-united with Burley in Cyprus in 2012.

Burley was sacked after just two games, but Iñigo soon found another job, coaching at Select Sports, a US-based academy that concentrates on introducing American youngsters into European football. He then had three years coaching the youth at Leicester before joining Nigel Pearson at Derby but that lasted all of two months before Pearson was suspended and then left.