Delph announces his retirement from football

27/09/2022 16comments  |  Jump to last

Fabian Delph has called time on his professional football career just weeks after leaving Everton when his contract expired.

The 32-year-old spent three injury-hit seasons at Goodison Park after joining the Blues in 2019 from Manchester City and he managed just 35 Premier League appearances in that time.

His 2021-22 campaign was similarly disrupted by soft-tissue complaints but he returned to fitness in time to shore up the midfield for some crucial fixtures in the run-in that helped Everton avoid relegation.

Capped 20 times for England, Delph emerged from Leeds United's academy before joining Aston Villa in 2009, with the Villans reportedly beating Everton to his signature at the time.

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He was snapped up by Man City six years later and won the Premier League title at the Etihad Stadium.

 

Reader Comments (16)

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Steve Brown
1 Posted 27/09/2022 at 17:36:31
Delph retires.

35 league apperances in 3 years. Proof that injury-prone players remain injury-prone after you sign them.

Paul Hewitt
2 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:21:32
He retired the second he signed for us. Terrible signing.
Paul Birmingham
3 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:38:45
Well he certainly took Everton to the cleaners when he signed.

Why buy a player who was rarely making the Man City squad and had poor fitness?

But on the positive, those mistakes in recruitment will be a thing of the past hopefully.

Christy Ring
4 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:41:33
Nothing against Delph, but said it at the time, who gave a 3-year contract, wages and fee of £20M+, to a player who was injury prone before we signed him, and nothing changed?

Sadly another expensive mistake.

Christy Ring
5 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:41:33
Nothing against Delph, but said it at the time, who gave a 3 year contract, wages and fee £20m+, to a player who was injury prone before we signed him, and nothing changed, sadly another expensive mistake.
Jerome Shields
6 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:54:28
He was a poor signing but contributed a lot during the relegation dogfight.
Peter Gorman
7 Posted 27/09/2022 at 22:59:48
Fair play if be wants to retire, not many of us can really comprehend the career he had in football but I suppose calling time immediately after being released by the club doesn't exactly scream love of the game and underlines what a cack signing he was for us compared to the characters we seem to be gathering at the moment.
Steve Brown
8 Posted 28/09/2022 at 01:24:33
Christy, Injury prone before he signed and he stayed that way afterwards.

Thelwell’s approach seems to be to only sign and retain players who have a track record of staying healthy.

Stephen Campbell
9 Posted 28/09/2022 at 01:38:02
Awful signing because he had been injured most of his last season at Man City and continued the same trend the time he was with us.

I know some people will say that he helped us survive with his performances at the end of last season and in all fairness he did. However, you can't get away from the fact that he got paid for laying on the treatment table for 60% of the 3 seasons he spent at Goodison.

Danny O’Neill
10 Posted 28/09/2022 at 06:36:36
I think he fell into that category of making the big club jump too soon. Classic example of should have stayed and played. I seem to recall a young Scott Parker doing a similar thing when he left Charlton. Agent influence for their own bumper pay day rather than the interests of the player?

I don't doubt the talent and ability of Delph. Actually a very calm player with the ball at his feet. I question whether he was just seriously unfortunate with injury or he just lost the desire to play football after too long at City (for example) warming the bench, becoming comfortable and not fancying it anymore as he was living on Easy Street. That's something I'll never know.

Whatever the reason, I'll thank him for those last few games of last season when he showed his experience and ability to contribute in carrying us over the line. It might have only been a few games in the context of his time at Everton but, at the time, those few games mattered.

Shame. A talented footballer. Retired at 32 in the modern footballing era. Whatever the reason, a crying shame.

And for the record, I'm someone who once said I'd be glad to never see him in an Everton shirt again.

Colin Glassar
11 Posted 28/09/2022 at 07:36:00
According to some reports, Delph injured himself making the announcement.
Tony Abrahams
12 Posted 28/09/2022 at 07:43:22
Easy Street, or a game that waits for nobody, just caught up with him maybe, Danny?

Delph could definitely play, but football in the Premier League is mainly about physicality, and it was horrible to see Fabian looking so pedestrian during any given period of any game, against players who probably wouldn't have lived with him in his younger days.

Retiring is a wise choice, although he probably didn't really have an option, with the way his body has constantly let him down for years.

Christine Foster
13 Posted 28/09/2022 at 07:53:37
I think it was both very difficult for him and sensible. He knew his injury record over the last few years stopped him playing a few more years at a lower level where he would have undoubtable struggled with the added physicality of the Championship.

Whilst not ending a career on a high note, he can be proud of his career. There was a very good player in there lost in a failing body. Time to give it away.

As a club, we didn't get the best out of him, but we got glimpses that he could do the business if and when fit. Alas too little, too late.

Shame... some players are blessed with a strong body, others aren't so lucky.

Alan McGuffog
14 Posted 28/09/2022 at 11:57:48
And I shan't be headlining at Glastonbury next year...
Justin Doone
15 Posted 28/09/2022 at 12:24:23
A very good player when fit, so he was worth the gamble for me.

The thing that we (and the majority of clubs) got wrong is the high minimum salary with a long contract for an ageing injury-prone player.

There should be a break clause, a large % incentive to play and a sensible 2-year contract with an additional year based on a minimum number of appearances etc.

I can see him coaching and staying involved. Probably at Leeds.

David West
16 Posted 28/09/2022 at 15:34:15
Where we have the mural outside the Park End of all the legends of years gone by to remind us how great they were, we should also have one of the last few years' players…

Delph's the captain, with Tosun, Walcott, Klaassen, Williams, Ramirez, Sigurdsson, Bolasie, Martina, Niasse, with their total cost to the club painted above their pictures to remind future managers and boards not to piss money away.

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