Neil Shipperley, whose father, Dave, had played for Charlton and Gillingham, had progressed through Chelsea’s ranks to come good in his second pro season of 1993-94. He played in more than half of the club’s Premiership games and scored in both Cups, although he failed to make the side that lost in the FA Cup Final. But come December, Neil was on loan at second-tier Watford – until

Southampton’s manager, Alan Ball, paid £1.4m, a club record, to bring Neil, still only 20, back into the Premiership.

He immediately replaced Iain Dowie at No.9 and was ever-present for what remained of the 1994-95 season. Taking Ball’s summer departure in his stride, Neil missed only one League game during Dave Merrington’s season in charge and started the first nine games of 1996-97 under the latest manager, Graeme Souness.

In other words, he had by now started in 65 of the Saints’ 66 Premiership fixtures since his arrival – a consistency rewarded by the first six of his eventual seven U-21 caps.

But Souness was not impressed. He has revealed, in his management-memoirs, that he was keen to sign two Norwegian strikers: Egil Ostenstad and Tore André Flo. He had to settle for Østenstad, who came on as a sub in Shipperley’s 65th start. Egil started the next game, in which Neil came off the bench to score. That didn’t stop Souness putting him up for sale and, offered a choice between two second-tier clubs, Neil opted to help Palace win promotion, rather than join Portsmouth. Souness’s preference for Østenstad entailed choosing between two six-footers of contrasting styles.

Neil was a bustling, archetypal centre-forward of the kind fans have traditionally loved,

while Egil, just under a stone lighter, moved far more daintily. Even the most ardent Shipperley fan must surely have warmed to Egil, though, on the Saturday after Neil’s departure, as he tip-toed effortlessly through Manchester United’s rearguard, feeding upon Eyal Berkovic’s supreme service, to score what some still claim to have been a hat-trick. Yet Souness had released the younger man – by almost three years Østenstad’s junior. Neil would still be among the goals, 10 years after leaving Southampton, top-scoring for Sheffield United as they won promotion to the Premiership in 1996, even as Egil was finishing his career, back home in Norway.

That doesn’t prove that Souness had acted in undue haste, but it might at least cause you to wonder. Neil would soon finish playing and move into non-league management in the Heathrow area. Living in north-west London, he made national news in December 2019 when he was found guilty of exposure and performing a sex act on himself in front of a woman and her 16 year old daughter. In his defence he said the death of his father, gambling problems and debts had caused him to act in the way he did. He narrowly escaped a prison sentence.