‘You’re ruining the game’ – Rory Delap reveals he made Chelsea star son Liam break down in tears over long throw-ins

THE GODFATHER of the long throw is enjoying finding himself a Prem style icon.

Fifteen years on from his days in infamy with Stoke, Rory Delap has been left shaking his head seeing top flight defenders wilting under the same sort of pressure that became his stock in trade.

For Delap, the man to blame, inadvertently, is the manager who has changed English football the most, Pep Guardiola.

Yet Delap also recalls how his reputation once brought the player now carrying the family name in the Prem to tears.

Son Liam Delap is a £30m Chelsea striker with a Club World Cup winners medal, achievements that have already brought his father delight.

But even as Liam started out his football career as a kid, he had to cope with parental disapproval of his father’s reputation.

Delap senior, 49, who played for Derby, Southampton and Sunderland before his six years in the Potteries under Tony Pulis, said: “I’m immensely proud of Liam, of all three of my sons and my daughter.

“People think Liam’s had an easy route, and it’s anything but. He’s had his ups, his downs, but he’s always stayed focused that he could make it,

“He had to leave home, make a decision to leave home at 16, go to Manchester not knowing really what the situation was, but he’s always backed himself.

“I’ve always said, ‘if you work as hard as possible so there’s no excuse, you never know where it’s going to get you – treat people with respect, see where it takes you’.

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“He’s not there yet. He’s had a big move in the summer to Chelsea, a big opportunity for him.

“Liam’s been unfortunate with the (hamstring) injury, he started well in America and then the start of the season, but he’s got a lot to do to force his way into the team now.”

One of those early hard steps came when Rory agreed to stand in for his youngster’s coach for one game when he was still at primary school.

Talking to the Derbyshire FA/DerbyUniFootyJournos podcast On The Grass, Delap recalled: “The coach wasn’t able to be there and the game would have been postponed, so he asked me to take it for him.

“Unfortunately, in the game, the team was losing. And then there was 30 seconds left or something.

“Liam took two long throws, I’m talking aged seven or eight. We scored from them. Their parents are going berserk: ‘You’re ruining the game!’

“So Liam was in tears even though they’ve won. That’s probably the last time he took a throw in. And that was the end of my grassroots coaching career.”

While Liam does not take long throws any more, they are back with a vengeance in the Prem.

In the 2020-21 season, there was less than one long throw into the box per match.

This season, already that average is four, with nine goals scored directly from the aerial bombardment by the likes of Arsenal’s Jurien Timber, Michael Kayode at Brentford and Sunderland’s Nordi Mukiele.

For Delap, the success of the tactic is a direct but unintended consequence of Guardiola’s successful rewriting of the football basics.

He added: “If you look over the last 10 years, Pep’s had a big influence on how teams, not just in the Premier League play, but across the board.

“Pep’s always had the best players in the world to work with, which makes things a lot easier.

“You can go down to the non-league divisions and see it there as well – where teams are trying to play their way out.

“It’s the same with academies, the majority of the teams will look to play out and they want technical players.

“The consequence of that is you end up with the defenders that can’t defend and head the football.

“That’s become prevalent, that people are putting more long balls in because the lads that have come through the academies don’t understand how to defend that type of situation.

“So you’re seeing the longer balls, throw-ins, set plays.

“There’s a correlation in a lot of teams having set play coaches, but it’s a bit disrespectful to say that’s a new thing, because it’s not.

“It was just that before it was the coach’s or the manager’s job to do it as part of the plan, the programme. “So it’s no less or no more important today than it was. Teams are doing it because they’re getting success.”

*Rory Delap was talking to the Derbyshire FA/DerbyUniFootyJournos podcast On The Grass‘.