Peter Osgood dies [Archive]

R�iteoir

01/03/2006, 1:41 PM

It would appear that Chelsea Legend Peter Osgood has died today at a family funeral.

It was just confirmed by a supporter on the official Chelsea chat site who works at the BBC (although it has not officially been announced yet).

Risteard

01/03/2006, 1:54 PM

Rip..

Poor Student

01/03/2006, 1:55 PM

It would appear that Chelsea Legend Peter Osgood has died today at a family funeral.

That's awful.:( RIP.

hamish

01/03/2006, 2:01 PM

Good God!
I remember attending a game in Mels with him playing against Athlone Town in the late 80s I think for Philidelphia Furies with Alan Taylor.
Or was it Vancouver Whitecaps?
Maybe the other Athlone lads can jog my old memory here as to which team it was??
He's be what? Late 50s?
RIP - good player.
He was in a fine Chelsea side with the likes of Charlie Cooke, Peter Houseman, Ron Harris etc.
What was the name of the other Chelsea centre forward who died a few years ago and played with him also. Ian ?? Can't remember his surname.

Edit - think it was Ian Hutchinson??

Clifford

01/03/2006, 2:37 PM

RIP if confirmed, a real legend. That's very sad, I assume there will be a minutes silence at all the weekends games as a mark of respect.

OwlsFan

01/03/2006, 2:39 PM

Bit of a shock ok. I think Paddy Mulligan and John Dempsey also played on the same Chelsea team as him. Bonetti in goal I also remember.

hamish

01/03/2006, 2:45 PM

Bit of a shock ok. I think Paddy Mulligan and John Dempsey also played on the same Chelsea team as him. Bonetti in goal I also remember.

Yeah, that's right OwlsFan - you're bringing it all back to me now.:)

osgood was good

01/03/2006, 2:47 PM

hamish

01/03/2006, 2:54 PM

I have just seen it on Sky news , my boyhood hero has passed away .

Its like losing a mate even though i never met the man and im very sad he's gone at such a young age .

Last Jan i remember telling my wife how much i hoped to meet the man while over for the Charlton game , unfortunately it never happened , now it never will

I hope the club release a dvd so we can relive the memories ,it will take pride of place in my home .

God bless the man and i will always treasure the memories of a true legend who was the reason i supported Chelsea as a 7 year old .

Missed by all.

RIP

Nice to see others posting and paying their tributes, fair play to all, well appreciated .

Yep OWG, Ossie was one of a crop of fine English centre forwards those days, wasn't he? Martin Peters, Ian Hutchinson, Geoff Hurst, Supermac etc etc etc.

Those days too you had a lot of English goalkeepers who were highly rated. Look at the scene now - very few English keepers in the Premiership.
Amazing how things change.

magic moments

01/03/2006, 2:55 PM

A true gent and a CHELSEA legend RIP.

KK77

01/03/2006, 3:09 PM

RIP Peter

carrickharp

01/03/2006, 3:32 PM

Sad news indeed, RIP:(

superfrank

01/03/2006, 5:58 PM

RIP. I'm sure all other Chelsea fans are in mourning. He was a legend, up there with Chopper.

osgood was good

01/03/2006, 6:38 PM

With you this one Superfrank. Still have a poster i got of him in ''72, my dad bought it for my birthday . On my 12 year old's bedroom wall now .

renovater

01/03/2006, 10:49 PM

Just like to add my name to the list to here that the WIZARD OF OZZ as pass on
I am sure like any great Chelsea supporter its a sad day for his family and Chelsea F.C.
I would hope that C.F.C. find a tribute to the great man he was so that all Chelsea suporters can remember him by.
As for me he was the greatest striker at chelsea in the old days when they as players only played for pounds not hundreds of thousands
As for Chelsea players now is the chance to put the result against Barca right for the man we called Peter Osgood.

osgood was good

02/03/2006, 2:24 AM

Just had a look at a few fans web sites , not a bad word against the man , even Millwall fans paying tribute . Its good to know when an ex pro passes away that fans of the game are openminded enough to respect the talent regardless of the club connestions and im delighted that there are a lot of genuine football fans out there prepared to pay tribute to a Chelsea legend .

As a Chelsea fan may i say a BIG thanks to all.

CollegeTillIDie

02/03/2006, 6:35 AM

CollegeTillIDie

02/03/2006, 6:37 AM

Those days too you had a lot of English goalkeepers who were highly rated. Look at the scene now - very few English keepers in the Premiership.Amazing how things change.
Yes the English even had good defenders in largeish numbers too back then and still they couldn't qualify for World Cups ( 1974, 1978 for example).

drummerboy

02/03/2006, 11:41 AM

Sad, thats Ian Hutchinson, Osgood and Peter Houseman all gone from that Chelsea team that beat Leeds in the replayed cup final. Boyood memories.

renovater

02/03/2006, 9:42 PM

its been reported to day from Chelsea they will honour the king of the kings road
i take it will be a statue of the grest player after G Best.
R.I.P.

NeilMcD

03/03/2006, 12:09 PM

its been reported to day from Chelsea they will honour the king of the kings road
i take it will be a statue of the grest player after G Best.
R.I.P.

I cant understand your post but just to clarify are you saying that Peter Osgood was the greatest ever player after George Best. Give me a break if thats what you are saying. I would argue that Best was not even the best ever. Could you please clarify what you mean. by that.

Poor Student

03/03/2006, 3:23 PM

I cant understand your post but just to clarify are you saying that Peter Osgood was the greatest ever player after George Best. Give me a break if thats what you are saying. I would argue that Best was not even the best ever. Could you please clarify what you mean. by that.

Look, this is a thread dedicated to the man's life and death, could you not be so pedantic and leave the debating outside please?

renovater

03/03/2006, 7:11 PM

I cant understand your post but just to clarify are you saying that Peter Osgood was the greatest ever player after George Best. Give me a break if thats what you are saying. I would argue that Best was not even the best ever. Could you please clarify what you mean. by that.
just a statement that best was a great player and so was Osgood its a complement to any player if you say he was as good.
dont get so hang up we are as the coach said praising the man life not examing him.

Redtop

03/03/2006, 11:23 PM

was way before my time but my uncle seen him play a few times when he lived in england for a while and said that he was pure quality..RIP

NeilMcD

08/03/2006, 1:24 PM

just a statement that best was a great player and so was Osgood its a complement to any player if you say he was as good.
dont get so hang up we are as the coach said praising the man life not examing him.

Sorry I was just asking for it to be clarified. You said that Osgood was the grest player after best. I am not sure what that means. Are you saying he was a great player like Best but not as good or are you saying he was the greatest player after Best.

In addition if the forum is just a thread to say RIP and etc etc is it not pretty boring as a result. I think the merits of the player should be discussed as that is healthy and it provokes debate and lets us find out where the player ranks in the true standing of the game.

Poor Student

08/03/2006, 1:38 PM

Yes and no Neil. In the event of the death of a player emotions will gush and people will exaggerate a bit, and there's hardly any need to keenly debate every emotional statement. You might find RIP a bit boring but the point of an RIP thread is not to entertain you.

NeilMcD

08/03/2006, 1:45 PM

Well surely a bit of balance is a good thing. What is the point of the Also i did not say anything bad about Peter Osgood, i was just seeking clarification on what Renovater was saying.

Also what is the point of a RIP statement then so the poster can feel good about themselves or what. I personally think it does the player more of a service if we do debate there standing within the game. Somone who dies is not beyond criticism and sychophantic behaviour in my view is not healthy.

Saying that Peter Osgood seemed like a bit of a player on and off the pitch and from what a lot of ex players are saying he seemed like a very very nice guy too.

Poor Student

08/03/2006, 1:59 PM

Neil, common sense would have told you the poster was obviously a bit emotional when he posted it. I don't think there's a need for being so pedantic over such a comment in this thread. That's the approach I am taking on threads announcing deaths. If you don't agree with me you can complain to the boss. Otherwise you'll have to accept my stance.

NeilMcD

09/03/2006, 10:53 AM

Madam, - I could not help noticing the contrast between the obituary of Ralph Slazenger, former owner of the Powerscourt estate in Co Wicklow, and that of Peter Osgood, soccer legend. Readers were given details of the Slazenger family's origins as late 18th-century Jewish emigrants from Silesia to England.

However, with regard to the late Peter Osgood, there was no mention that his late mother was a member of the Duggan family from Co Tipperary.

May both these great men rest in peace. - Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DUFFY, St James Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12.

NeilMcD

09/03/2006, 10:57 AM

Peter Osgood: The Chelsea, Southampton and England soccer player Peter Osgood, who has died after a heart attack at a family funeral in Slough, aged 59, never truly fulfilled his enormous promise and potential.

It was Geoff Hurst who scored three goals for England in the World Cup final of 1966 against West Germany. But it was Osgood who might so easily have played in his place.

Precociously and richly gifted, an amalgam of power, finesse and opportunity, he had been in ebullient form that season in the Chelsea attack. But during a match at Blackpool his leg was broken in a collision with a future England captain, Emlyn Hughes, and that was the end of his World Cup chances.

He scored 150 goals altogether for Chelsea in 380 appearances, but in his scintillating career Osgood played only four times for England, twice as substitute. Three of those caps came in the season of 1969-70 when he materially helped Chelsea to win the FA Cup for the first time.

Only the game against Belgium, his debut, saw him last the full 90 minutes. It was perhaps inevitable that Osgood, with his dissident, sometimes rebellious character, would hardly be the kind of player to appeal to the straitlaced England manager, Alf Ramsey, whatever his possibilities, although far less gifted players achieved far more international caps.

ADVERTISEMENT
Osgood was born in Windsor and joined Chelsea as a junior in 1964. He played a major role at centre forward in Chelsea's FA Cup success, and not least in the sixth-round 4-1 victory at Queen's Park Rangers, when he scored three.

There had never yet been a replay of the FA Cup final, but after a draw against Leeds at Wembley on an atrocious pitch, the clubs had to meet again at Old Trafford. Leeds went ahead there, but a spectacular goal from Osgood equalised, and David Webb eventually scored the winner. Osgood is one of only nine players to score in every round of the cup.

This put Chelsea into the European Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached the final against Real Madrid. Osgood gave Chelsea the lead, but Real equalised in the last minute. In the replay two days later on the same ground Osgood scored again, as did the Chelsea centre-half, John Dempsey, and this time the Cup was Chelsea's.

Osgood was never likely to see eye to eye with Ramsey, nor was it likely that he would have easy relations with his Chelsea manager, Dave Sexton, an altogether more sober character, a devotee of the Jesuit philosopher Teilhard de Chardin.

Relations between Osgood, his friend Alan Hudson, a greatly talented young playmaker strongly influenced by Osgood himself, and Sexton, came to the boil on St Stephen's Day 1973. Osgood and Hudson had been at odds with Sexton for some time.

When they met West Ham, Chelsea were 2-0 up at half time and seemingly well in command, only to collapse in the second half and lose 4-2, with Osgood and Hudson seemingly uninvolved.

A couple of games later Sexton dropped both men and when, soon afterwards, it came to another FA Cup tie at Queen's Park Rangers, they both refused to train with the first team. Both were at once suspended and put on the transfer list.

Osgood was sold to Southampton for �275,000, Sexton remarking: "Maybe it would have been best if Ossie and I had sorted it out quickly between four walls of a locked room. But it wouldn't possibly have remained private with Ossie. He doesn't know when to be a good lad or Jack-the-

Lad." Osgood got one more England cap that season, against Italy, but it would prove his last.

He was to be put down as one of those all-too-familiar maverick England talents, never able to fulfil their potential in international football.

Standing 6ft 1�in, weighing just under 12 stone, always a compound of strength and technique, Osgood became one of a number of gifted veteran players who kept Southampton in the top division while Chelsea, without him and Hudson, were doomed to slide into the Second.

He helped Southampton to a surprise FA Cup final victory over Manchester United in 1976. After Southampton he joined the exodus to the North American Soccer League, but was soon back at Chelsea. After his playing days he ran a pub in Windsor with team-mate Ian Hutchinson.

On retiring, Osgood subsequently became a match day host at Stamford Bridge, only to cross swords with the always abrasive chairman, Ken Bates, and be brusquely banned from the stadium, although subsequently he was permitted to return. Latterly he was a well-known after-dinner speaker.

He was married three times. His wife Lynn and three sons survive him.

Peter Osgood, footballer, born February 20th, 1947; died March 1st, 2006

renovater

09/03/2006, 9:18 PM

Sorry I was just asking for it to be clarified. You said that Osgood was the grest player after best. I am not sure what that means. Are you saying he was a great player like Best but not as good or are you saying he was the greatest player after Best.

In addition if the forum is just a thread to say RIP and etc etc is it not pretty boring as a result. I think the merits of the player should be discussed as that is healthy and it provokes debate and lets us find out where the player ranks in the true standing of the game.
yes i am agreeing with you, just mis quote
take it easy ya to hard on your self
R.I.P.OSSIE

CollegeTillIDie

12/03/2006, 8:22 AM

RIP Mr. Osgood. Also played for the Southampton 1976 FA Cup winning side that beat ManUre 1-0 with a Bobby Stokes ( also passed away some years back) goal. Only received 4 caps for England. If only he'd had an Irish granny....

It seems from the letter to the Irish Times he had an Irish Mum. Can you imagine how much a striker of his calibre would have added to that Irish team of the early 1970s?:(