Born in England of Irish parents, Rory Delap began his League career at Carlisle, as they yo-yoed between the bottom two divisions. His manager for much of that time was Mick Wadsworth. When Southampton’s caretaker-manager Stuart Gray was confirmed in the job in the summer of 2001, he brought in Wadsworth as his assistant. Delap, who had by now had three-and-a-half Premiership seasons at Derby – winning the first six of his eventual 11 Republic of Ireland caps, while he was about it – promptly agreed to join his old boss at Southampton.

The club-record fee of £4m would last 11 years until Jay Rodriguez arrived in 2012.

Exploiting Rory’s versatility, Gray deployed him at right-wing-back, deputising for the injured Jason Dodd, and then as a stand-in center-back when Dean Richards left for Tottenham.

By the time Rory had an extended end-of-season run in his favored midfield position, Gray and Wadsworth had long gone, to be succeeded by Gordon Strachan. Competing with Matt Oakley, Chris Marsden and Anders Svensson for a midfield niche in 2002-03, Rory featured in the Saints’ FA Cup-run, but his season ended when he came on as a sub in the semi-final v Watford and was injured. Having hardly missed a game in 2004-05, relegation required that some of the higher earners needed to be offloaded.

He joined Sunderland, for whom he made half-a-dozen Premiership games before they were relegated in their turn. He became marginal to the requirements of new manager Roy Keane and was loaned to Stoke City. Despite his breaking a leg while on loan, he signed permanently and hardly missed a game as they won promotion from the Championship in 2008. It was during Stoke’s first season in the top flight that

Rory, who had been a schoolboy javelin champion, became renowned for his long throws, which he would propel into the opposition’s goalmouth at a low trajectory, invariably causing mayhem and occasionally a goal.

In his fifth Premiership season at Stoke, Rory made but one appearance before loaned to Championship Barnsley. Then, in July 2013, he joined League Two Burton but retired in December after persistent hamstring problems. He became a first-team coach at Stoke, in 2018, working under Gary Rowett but when he and his successor, Nathan Jones were sacked Rory temporarily occupied the hot seat on a caretaker basis.

In September 2020 Liam, his son, a forward, made his Premier League debut for Manchester City.