Although his father, Rex, had been a professional footballer with Derby County, Russell Osman’s first international recognition came playing rugby for England Schools. By the time he joined Southampton, however, at the age of 29, he had played football for England – from Youth and U-21 levels to 11 full caps. And he had made more than 400 League appearances – most of them for Ipswich, when they were a top First Division side under Bobby Robson, and latterly for Leicester, as they dropped down to Division II. So when he signed for Chris Nicholl in 1988 – for a tribunal-determined fee of £325,000 – Russell was stepping back up to Division I.

He could put himself about, but he was so comfortable on the ball that he readily made it look as though the top flight was where he belonged, as he settled in for a near ever-present first season at centre-back, surviving the arrival of Neil Ruddock. Speaking in 2024, Alan Shearer, a youngster when Osman arrived at The Dell was asked who was the best two-footed player he had seen. He answered “Russsell was unbelievable and you could n’t tell if it was left foot or right foot. He used to spray it around and he was the best I have seen”.

Russell remained the leading centre-back, the following season, during which he scored five of his six goals for the Saints, two of them coming v Everton at The Dell: a left-footed cracker from 25 yards to open the scoring; and a right-footed volley to complete a 2-2 score-line. And he had been astute enough to venture a tenner, at 33/1, on his scoring the first goal of that match.

Russell would be less regular in 1990-91, Nicholl’s last season, but would start the next, for the incoming Ian Branfoot, at left-back and then be gone – on loan, but soon permanently, to second-tier Bristol City. As Russell put it to Ian Carnaby, in a 2007 interview,

“the day Ian Branfoot walked through the door, my Southampton career was over.

All those years I’d been a centre-half, but he thought I’d make a good left-back.” His stay at Ashton Gate, in which he ended up as manager, was the start of a footballing tour – through various permutations of playing, coaching, assisting and managing.He also had spells with Eurosport, ITV West, Today FM and other “bits and pieces”. Having left his coaching job at Ipswich in Aug 2013, he was out of the game until the summer of 2015 when he was invited by his old Ipswich team defensive partner, Terry Butcher to be his assistant at Newport County. Unfortunately their partnership was short-lived as they both were sacked just a few months into the new season after a string of poor results.