Fabian Delph became one of the least popular players in English football this week when he decided to join Manchester City just days after committing his future to Aston Villa.

Some have suggested his unexpected u-turns makes him even less likeable than his new teammate Raheem Sterling, who walked out on Liverpool in search of fame and fortune. However, in Delph’s case it is only fair to put his dramatic change of heart into perspective.

When City originally approached the England midfielder and offered him a huge contract to move to the Etihad, he thought about it for a while, as any sensible person would do, and then turned them down.

He said at the time: “I’m not leaving. I’m staying at the football club and I can’t wait for the start of the season and captaining this great football club.”

But then Liverpool made their move for Villa striker Christian Benteke, and that changed Delph’s mind.

What was the point in him showing loyalty to a club which was about to sell one of its only other genuine assets? Why should he stay around and help a club that was selling its stars and whose owner cannot even remember where Birmingham is?

In an ideal world I am fairly sure Delph would have preferred to stay at Villa, at least for the next season or two.

He has been there since he was 19 and only just signed a new deal to keep him at Villa Park until 2019.

But there comes a point in a player’s career where they have to admit they are fighting a losing battle. Benteke’s departure meant Delph had reached that point.

The sad truth from a Villa perspective is that losing these two players has firmly labelled them as a selling club when in reality they probably would have preferred to sell neither.

Unfortunately both players had release clauses in their contracts and, when those were triggered, there was nothing the club could do.

What was always likely to be a long hard season of struggle for Villa has now become an even scarier prospect. And you can bet your bottom dollar that no man will be unhappier about that than Delph. A loyal player but not to the point of stupidity. And you cannot hold that against him.

The Tinkerman returns

Claudio Ranieri’s appointment as Leicester manager has been met by a wave of indifference with most of the club’s fans entirely underwhelmed by the Italian’s return to the Premier League.

He first arrived on English shores 15 years ago to take over at pre-Abramovich Chelsea. His first three years at the club were solid if not overly remarkable.

In fact the most notable thing about his time at the club was his insatiable desire to constantly change his team, earning him his ‘Tinkerman’ nickname.

Then Roman arrived on the scene and suddenly Chelsea had money to spend on winning a title. Ranieri did not need asking twice and splashed out £120 million.

But they only managed second place and Claudio was sacked, to make way for a young, quiet, unassuming chap called Jose Mourinho.

The rest, of course, is history.

But his appointment at Leicester and the largely negative reaction to it, prompted me to do some research and see how the Italian has been keeping himself busy over the last decade or so.

Wow. What a CV. This man has managed more clubs than some managers have seen play. Before he even arrived at Chelsea he had been in charge of seven clubs, including Napoli, Valencia and Atletico Madrid.

Post-Chelsea he went off on another tour of Europe, taking charge of seven clubs in 11 years.

Obviously his time in London had helped his reputation as his career after Stamford Bridge included Parma, Juventus, Roma, Inter and Monaco.

There comes a point in a player’s career where they have to admit they are fighting a losing battle

His final appointment before washing up back on English shores was in Greece where he managed the national team for five games.

So what does all this tell us about Claudio and his return to the Premier League?

Well, first and foremost it would suggest he is not likely to be around for long. Leicester is his 16th managerial appointment in a career that has spanned 29 years. So, on average he spends less than two years with a club.

Having said that, on the positive side, he must be one of the most experienced managers in Europe.

Most managers need scouts to spy on other clubs to tell them how they play and how they operate. In Ranieri’s case that will not be necessary as he has managed most of them himself.

Seriously though, I do not see his appointment at Leicester as being all that negative. He does not have a track record of winning titles or even that many cups. But Leicester are unlikely to be challenging for either anyway.

What Leicester need now, after their dramatic and miraculous escape from relegation last season, is a manager who can stabilise the club and make them a regular Premiership team over the next couple of season.

Ranieri might not be a manager to get the pulse racing but he is also not likely to take a club down.

There are 15 sets of fans out there who will testify to that. (Well 14 sets actually. After four defeats and a draw in his five games in charge of the national team, Ranieri is about as popular in Greece as the bastard offspring of the IMF and Angela Merkel).

Personally I think Leicester fans should be happy that the Tinkerman has brought his unique, short-term brand of management to their lives. He may not be a managerial genius, but he is certainly clever enough to keep them in the top flight.

The money shot

What English comedian Simon Brodkin did at the FIFA press conference this week was not big and it was not clever. But it was extremely amusing. In the unlikely event that you missed it, Brodkin gatecrashed the conference, walked up to Sepp Blatter and showered him with fake money declaring it was for “North Korea 2026”.

The Englishman was quickly marched away by security and now faces a trespassing charge from Swiss authorities.

But in one comic moment he managed to create an iconic image – Blatter sitting at a desk in front of the FIFA logo with dollar bills floating all around him – that will go down in history.

In the future, when Blatter’s name comes up in relation to some investigation or the other, picture editors around the globe will have to fight the temptation to dig out the Brodkin image. And it is a battle many of them will not win.

Despite resigning months ago, Blatter is clinging to power and will still be in the job at the turn of the year – the press conference was to announce that the election for his successor will be held in February 2016.

His aim is to hang around long enough to start reforms aimed an ensuring FIFA’s institutionalised corruption is eliminated. It is a desperate attempt to repair a legacy that been all but destroyed by the fact he presided over the most corrupt years in the organisation’s history.

Thanks to Brodkin, however, whatever Blatter does from now on, you just know that whenever someone mentions his name, it is the money shot we will be thinking of.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade