OTD: RORY DELAP DEBUT

On this day in 2006, midfielder Rory Delap made his debut for the Lads. The Republic of Ireland international joined Sunderland after five years at Southampton, signed by fellow Irishman Mick McCarthy.

His spell on Wearside was marred by injury, only making six appearances in his first season. Delap made his debut as a substitute in a 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Birmingham City. The midfielder only played the full 90 minutes twice in his first Sunderland campaign, but actually scored in one of those. His header found the back of the net to earn a crucial 2-2 draw against Everton.

However, Delap was injured in the following game, following a clash of heads with George McCartney. This happened in a game against Fulham, which was abandoned due to bad weather but only after Delap suffered a broken nose. He underwent an operation to fix the injury but withdrew from the squad in a match against Manchester United after having a nosebleed in the warm up. The former Derby County man was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the season as we were relegated from the Premier League.

The following season, Roy Keane took over as manager but Delap quickly fell out of favour at the Stadium of Light. He joined Stoke City on loan but suffered more misfortune with injury. In his second match for the Potters, he played against Sunderland and broke his leg after just twelve minutes! Despite being ruled out for the whole season, Tony Pulis opted to sign Delap permanently in January 2007.

In typical Sunderland fashion, Delap left Wearside only to discover he had a unique weapon in his arsenal which we did not utilise. It was a long throw and it caused every club problems from the touchline. Some goalkeepers actually chose to kick the ball out for a corner rather than concede a throw in and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger complained that his throws were an “unfair advantage” and a long throw-in is “like kicking the ball”.

More recently, Delap became an assistant coach at Stoke and had a brief spell in 2019 as caretaker manager, leaving the club in 2023. He has two sons who are professional footballers, Liam Delap plays for Chelsea and Finn Delap plays for Burton Albion. In June 2023 he was appointed assistant under Robbie Keane at Maccabi Tel Aviv, he departed the club one year later after helping them win a league title. In January 2025 he became the assistant manager of Ferencvaros in Hungary, the club won a league title during his five-month spell.