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Stoke City have a new genuine long throw expert – just at a time when referees are being told to clamp down on the time it takes to throw the ball in. Stoke found worldwide fame when Rory Delap was dropping whizbangers in the Premier League and it has become a top flight trend in recent seasons to try to imitate the great man. Summer signing Svante Ingelsson has shown he can get the ball into the mixer and even the hierarchy is looking forward to the chaos it might produce. Chairman John Coates said: “It’s good. You saw the problems it caused in the friendly last weekend. We want to play great football and we want to constantly improve the way we play but you want additional weapons you can call upon and that’s one we can use. I think we will over the course of the season.” There might have to be a few habits broken to make sure Stoke get the ball into dangerous positions. FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest Stoke City news, analysis and more via the Sentinel Sporting director Jon Walters added: “I’m a fan as well and this is something I bang on about as well. When we have a throw in an attacking area and it ends up back at Vik’s feet you sigh. We talk about outcomes and we’ve been telling players in pre-season but then you see someone pick up the ball for a quick throw and it still goes back to the keeper to kick long. You’re not going to score unless the ball goes in the box but players have habits and need reminders and it’s something you pick up daily. “There are times last year, like Coventry away, when we were all over them but then they had a long throw and scored. To have that in our armoury is great.” Mark Robins, however, is wary of a change in the rules coming into play this season. He said: “Referees are coming in (to Clayton Wood) on Thursday to go through things. When we talk about long throws, you’ve got five seconds to put the ball in. There is going to be some running from our centre-backs! You can have a go at them if they’re walking. If they’re walking, you have a go at them!” The five-second countdown doesn't start when the ball goes out of play but can be used if the referee thinks there is deliberate disruption or time wasting. There are other rules to look out for over the next few months, however, or at least the first week as referees enforce their new demands. Robins said: “Something else is changing, Pro Ref are talking about holding. If anyone is in front of you and you pull them back it will be deemed as a warning then given as a penalty. If you are holding and you’re facing away from the ball that will be given as a penalty. We’ll see how things go. The ref coming in on Thursday will explain everything to players and staff.” Walters suggested that there were other ways to speed up the game. He said: “What annoys me is that referees go in to tell players to stop holding each other, then they go in and do it again, then they say you only have five seconds to take a throw in to speed the game up. Stop going in and talking to people and just give a penalty. Just let the players get on with the game. They can slow it down more than anyone.” The new throw-in protocol IFAB have set out a change to the throw-in and goal-kick protocol for the new season, which is intended to prevent time wasting and the disruption to the tempo of the match. If the referee determines that a player is deliberately delaying a restart: - The referee may use their whistle and/or voice to indicate that the player should hurry up/not delay the restart. - To start the five-second countdown (which may start without the above cue) the referee will: blow the whistle signal clearly with their hand/arm for the restart to be taken visually count down from five seconds with a raised hand; this visual countdown may be accompanied by a verbal countdown where appropriate - If the ball is not in play at the end of the five-second countdown, the referee will: award the throw-in to the opposing team, to be taken from the same position as the original throw-in; or award a corner kick to the opposing team on the side of the field closest to where the goal kick was to be taken - Where the restart is awarded to the opposing team, a caution (yellow card) applies only if the player or a team-mate then excessively delays the restart by the opposing team. The referee does not have to wait for a player to have possession of the ball to start the five-second countdown. The countdown can also be started if the player deliberately causes a delay by a player slowly retrieving the ball, taking up an incorrect position at a throw-in, or putting the ball in an incorrect position at a goal kick. Rory Delap's guide to a long throw Delap said: "Michael Kayode’s throw is probably the best in the Premier League right now. It’s very good. The bonus he’s got is that Brentford have got the size within that team to utilise his throw as well, and they’ve scored a lot of goals from them over the last couple of years. I think he’d nick top spot for me, at the minute. "Is it as good as mine? I don’t know… it’s all to do with the pace, and what you’ve got at the moment in the league is a lot of these high, looping balls, rather than the flat ones. "Weirdly, Gordon Strachan wanted me to do those high, loopy ones because we didn’t have a lot of size in that Southampton team at the time, and his theory was that a higher ball into the box was harder to get distance on, if you were a defender trying to clear it, which would lead to a bit of a scramble. It’s only Tony Pulis who decided he wanted me to change it up and go with those flat, low, fast ones. "I don’t think size of the thrower has anything to do with it; you look at some of the different players in the league right now who are all getting distance on the throw, and they’re all different sizes. "And then, of course, you’ve got Megan Campbell, who played for Ireland but has just retired. You know, you look at her compared to me, and she’s tiny, but the distance, the height, the loop and the speed she can get from her throws is incredible – she could do everything, as good as, if not better than, me." What do you think? Click HERE to join the debate