Premier League clubs were forced to use brutal tactics to stop Rory Delap's throw-ins
When you think of Premier League cult figures there are a few that immediately spring to mind.
Mention a name to anyone and everyone will instantly recognise him: Rory Delap. Or, to be more specific, a replacement player for Rory Delap.
Stoke City Tony Pulis' teams were awful. They were big, physical and disruptive.
Then came that throw-in that was deflected by the defender and was almost impossible to deal with.
A famous clip that always resurfaces on social media is the one from back then City of Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill.
He has the option of kicking the ball or taking a throw-in or a corner… and he chooses the latter.
Ben Foster He had Pulis in his 'Fozcast' and texted Myhill before going in to ask for stories about his former manager, with the pair meeting at West Brom.
Foster said: “Ask him about the time when he was playing for Hull. It was the time when Rory Delap was at his peak.
“There is a famous video where he runs towards the corner flag and the player closes it down.
“He can take the ball out for a throw-in or kick it for a corner… that's quick thinking.
“It's great. At that moment, a throw-in was more dangerous for Stoke City than a corner.”
Pulis then went on to recall the story of how they discovered that Delap had this secret weapon.
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He said: “We knew exactly where that throw was going to go and how flat it was. We finished training one day and the lads were having a competition on the far field to see who could hit it the furthest.
“They would put on 50 pounds or something. Kempy (assistant coach Dave Kemp) is watching them, I am doing something with the two young full-backs.
“I came over and Kempy said, ‘Have you seen Rory throw the ball? ’ I said no. He said he couldn’t believe it.
“He said, 'RORY, come here. Show the coach.' He throws the ball almost over the field.
“I said to him, 'Where have you been hiding that?' He was a javelin thrower for his county and he's ambidextrous, so he can throw further than most people.
“Then we talked about how we don’t want it to curl up, we want it to move. We adopted three positions.
“One was in front of the goalkeeper and came to pick it up. He moved close to the post and then in the middle of the goal, crossing paths with the goalkeeper. Then another one from behind.
“People used to think it was something that just happened, but we are working to fix it.”
Foster said: “Confronting him was murder.”
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Pulis added: “Against the best teams we needed to break up the game, we didn't want a free-flowing game.
“Rory would then kick the ball from the halfway line and his players would be fed up.
“It just broke the game.”
He even irritated top coaches like Arsene Wenger, who paid special attention to him in his training.
Pulis continued: “A story about Wenger, who was synonymous with Stoke supporters, we were playing them in the cup.
“Patrick Vieira and Jens Lehman were on a training course with me. I got my licence with my son in South Wales.
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“They were waiting for me afterwards, we have been reflecting on them most of the time, they tell me this story.
“It was the only time Arsene Wenger directed the defensive work when we played against them in that cup match.
“He had them there for 10 or 15 minutes. They all worked together and they had never seen him so tense.
“They came in and Rory wasn’t playing. Not just because we beat them 3-1. Wenger came in afterwards and had nothing to say.”
Rory Delap… a Premier League legacy.
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