When Lawrie McMenemy bought ‘The King of the Kings Road’, Peter Osgood from Chelsea for £275,000, club secretary Keith Honey questioned the wisdom of paying a record fee “for a fancy Dan….. a flash signing that would look good in the press”. Scroll forward just nine months to January 1975 and it would seem from the A DREAM that FAILED interview McMenemy gave to the Echo (see scrapbook),he was coming around to his secretary’s opinion and serious discussions were being held to sell ‘Ossie’ back to Chelsea.

Southampton had, however, unquestionably purchased a thoroughbred of a player, a forward whose skills had once made him the darling of the Shed and he was the first of many glamourous, big name stars that McMenemy would usher through the Dell door.

Osgood was no “fancy dan” though, he had no ‘airs and graces’ and his new team-mates were surprised at how quickly he fitted in to the dressing room (see scrapbook profile), with one colleague, Gerry O’Brien finding him “full of fun and very supportive of me and the younger players, as well”.

Paul Bennett, then an up-and-coming centre-half, found him

“one of the nicest guys I’ve known in football”

but, unfortunately,on the field, the team needed more than just charm and bonhomie and Saints were relegated ten games after he arrived. Saints had seriously been on the slide ever since Christmas and it was not a good time to integrate a not-fully-fit Osgood. He then initially struggled to adapt to the Second Division which is why McMenemy told Echo readers “the dream has failed” less than a year later, but happily for all parties Osgood stayed, and was rewarded with a FA Cup winner’s medal adding to the one he gained when Chelsea beat Leeds in 1970. Osgood claimed Saints win over Manchester United at Wembley meant more to him than winning with Chelsea because “Wembley is special” and Chelsea’s triumph had come after an Old Trafford replay.

After Saints Cup success,McMenemy set about building a team to win promotion back to Division One and Ossie stayed until November 1977 before turning down the offer of a new two-year contract to try his luck in the States. As he told the Football Echo at the time it was all about money “if someone offered you about four times as much as you are getting now for doing exactly the same job, what would you do?”. But he hated it over there and hurried back to Chelsea, another decision he came to regret. He “should have stayed with the Saints” he would later confess. “I could have played in that side for another three years – I could even have played sweeper if Lawrie wanted”.

So it was then that the curtain came down on this most popular of players, who it can safely be said genuinely achieved ‘legendary’ status with two clubs. He won only four England caps, the last of which coming just before his move to The Dell. In truth although, he was regarded probably as being too cavalier in his attitude to build a long international career although he had gone to Mexico as part of England’s 1970 World Cup squad.

After leaving football, he and ex-Chelsea colleague, Ian Hutchinson renovated and then ran the Union Inn, near his native Windsor and then he coached at holiday camps before he had a spell working with the youth team at Alan Ball’s Portsmouth. His quick wit and charisma made him a popular after-dinner speaker and he made several appearances on Southampton’s in-house radio station at St Mary’s. He died suddenly of a heart attack while attending a family funeral, aged just 59. It is very hard when hearing his name not to break out with a big smile for he was that sort of player and that sort of person. You only have to check out the scrapbook section to see photographic evidence.