When you consider Premier League cult figures there’s a number of that immediately spring to mind.
One name you mention to anyone will draw quick recognition… Rory Delap. Or to be more specific, a Rory Delap throw-in.
Stoke City under Tony Pulis were horrible to play against. They were big, physical, and disruptive.
You then had this throw-in that was arrowed in by the defender that was near unattainable to face.
One famous clip that all the time resurfaces on social media is of then Hull City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill.
He has the selection to kick the ball or for a throw-in or corner… and chooses the latter.
Ben Foster had Pulis on his ‘Fozcast’ and had text Myhill before coming on to ask for any stories about his old manager, with the pair linking up at West Brom.
Foster said: “Just ask him in regards to the time when he was playing for Hull. It was within the time where Rory Delap was in his pomp.
“There’s this famous clip where he’s run out to the corner flag and the player is closing him down.
“He can either put it out for a throw-in or kick it for a corner… that’s quick considering.
“It’s genius. At that moment in time, a throw-in was more of a threat than a corner for Stoke City.”
Pulis then went on to recall the story of how they found Delap had this secret weapon.
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He said: “We knew exactly where that throw-in was going and the way flat it was. We finished training someday and the lads were having a contest over on the far pitch about who could throw the longest.
“They’d put £50 in or something. Kempy [assistant manager Dave Kemp] is watching them, I’m doing something with the 2 young full-back.
“I walk over and Kempy says, ‘have you ever seen Rory throw the ball’. I’ve gone no. He said I can’t consider it.
“He’s gone ‘RORY, come here. Show the gaffer’. He throws it almost over the pitch.
“I said to him where have you ever been hiding that! He was a javelin thrower for his county and he’s ambidextrous so he can get further than most individuals.
“We then discuss how we don’t want it looped, we wish it thrown. We had three positions we took up.
“One was in front of the goalkeeper coming to gather it. Near post movement after which middle of the goal coming across the goalkeeper. Then one across the back.
“People used to think it just happened, but we worked on it.”
Foster said: “It was murder to face.”
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Pulis added: “Against the higher teams we would have liked to interrupt the sport up, we didn’t desire a free flowing game.
“Rory would then be throwing it from the halfway line and their players can be fed up.
“It just broke the sport up.”
It even got under the skin of great managers like Arsene Wenger, who paid it special attention in his training session.
Pulis continued: “One story about Wenger, who was synonymous with the Stoke supporters, we were playing them within the cup.
“Patrick Vieira and Jens Lehman were on a training course with me. I did a licence with my down in south Wales.
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“They were waiting for me after, we’ve mullered them more often than not, they tell me this story.
“It was the one time Arsene Wenger coached defensive work after we played them in that cup game.
“He had them there for 10-Quarter-hour. They worked all on this and so they’d never known him being so uptight.
“They get there and Rory isn’t playing. Not only that we murder them 3-1. Wenger got here in afterwards and had nothing to say.”
Rory Delap… Premier League heritage.
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