With news that one time Saints record signing Rory Delap is retiring, it highlights just what a great book "All The Saints" is and how valuable it is at times like these.

The first thing I did when I heard the news that Rory Delap was retiring was reach for my copy of "All The Saints" like many Saints supporters I saw Rory Delap play and i saw him play a lot, but my memory of him is fading and although I could tell you when we signed him that was purely because it was as we moved into St Mary's, I couldnt tell you how old he is, how many games he played or when he left etc.

So to page 296 of All The Saints and there he is just after Norman Dean and just in front of Augustin Delgado and Mark Dennis, the latter whom has a full page dedicated to him and quite rightly so.

To answer my three questions, Rory is now 37, he played 135 (17) games in total in all competitions and he left for Sunderland in January 2006, just for the record he also scored five goals.

But the information doesn't just stop there, apart from a good colour picture of him in action against Blackburn in 2003/04, we get a full resume of all the clubs he represented both before and after Saints, details of the first and last game he played for us, his debut was against Leeds United at Elland Road on 18th August 2001 and his final game was at home to Ipswich on 21st January 2006.

We then get a short biography of his career with Saints including the fact that after coming on as sub in 2003 in the FA Cup semi final against Watford he picked up an injury that effectively ended his season meaning he missed the FA Cup Final.

When ex Saints players are in the news for whatever reason, All The Saints will become an indespenable font(e) of all knowledge and enable the lucky owner to appear to be of Mastermind standard when he talks to his friends about the club.

So if you havent put this invaluable tome on your Xmas list yet, then you should, or perhaps it would make a great present for someone you know.

At £35 it isnt cheap, but it is a bargain when you consider the number of pages and its content.

The book is available in all local branches of Waterstones retailing at £35, but if you contact the publishers direct then more of the cover price will go to funding this project, you can order it at Hagiology Publishing

There you can buy it for only £30 if you live locally and it can be hand delivered or if it needs to be posted then for £37 including postage etc.

Photo: Action Images

davepid added 12:24 - Dec 18 I thought he did OK with us overall , though I know he disappointed some fans as he seemed to play his best for Stoke and never quite lived up to his record signing billing for us - but there again how many of our record signings do - Hurst, Delap, Delgado, Ramirez ? And in Div 1 days - Barnard , Forte, with Lee and Sharpe later. For those fans not impressed with Delap, presumably they think he's retiring to a donkey sanctuary.

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SaintNick added 13:10 - Dec 18 If you read the book it will remind us that we signed him as a central midfielder, however we rarely actually used him there in the early days
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stmichael added 14:50 - Dec 18 I realise this is just my opinion but this book does not excite me , I doubt I will buy it. It is just a dictionary of players most of whom we have never seen play and in alot of cases never actually heard of. I would prefer to read stories of what Steve Williams and Mark Dennis were like on and off the pitch rather than carreer stats.
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