Edited February 25, 20251 yr by erskblue

The famous and oh-so vital goal at Bolton. Silently thank him,every time I see a picture or think of this goal.

We lost a legend 19 years ago today.

Ossie's famous diving header against Leeds United

Edited March 1, 20251 yr by erskblue

From official site. Published 1 March 2021.

www.chelseafc.com

Any Blues fan worth their salt will know why Peter Osgood is one of our all-time greats: the FA Cup final diving header, conquering Real Madrid et al. But how did this gangly teenager from Windsor become the King of Stamford Bridge? On the 15th anniversary of his sudden passing, we look back at the early years of his incredible Chelsea career.

Only one man has ever been crowned the King of Stamford Bridge, but what was it about Peter Osgood that elevated him above his peers to such illustrious standing within the football club?

It’s clear he was blessed with immense talent on a football field. As his old manager Tommy Docherty, who we sadly lost at the end of 2020, put it, in typically jocular fashion, ‘He was great in the air and had two great feet. He was quick, skilful and brave. But he didn't have a lot after that.’

What Doc didn’t add was that, compared to some of the other legendary strikers who have graced this football club, Osgood didn’t score the most goals; others could certainly claim to be more skilful; some led the team to the highest honours in the club game. None, however, connected with the supporters quite like Ossie. A Chelsea career which produced 150 goals across 380 appearances was accompanied by many more tales away from the football field.

Plenty of those stories have been told time and time again. Instead, we’re focusing on the lesser told tales from the beginning of this Chelsea legend's career and how those early experiences, particularly under Docherty, shaped a career and a life which touched so many Blues supporters along the way.

Osgood always seemed destined for a career at the top level of sport. He was an all-rounder as a kid, representing Dedworth Secondary Modern at football, cricket, basketball and tennis. But when he left school at 15 to work in an office in Slough, soon to become a bricklayer working alongside his father, his football dream seemed to be slipping away.

Ossie showing off his skills on the Stamford Bridge pitch

Though he was excelling for local sides Spital Old Boys and Windsor Corinthians – turning out for one on the Saturday and the other the following morning – and trial opportunities arose with Reading and Arsenal, the side he had followed as a boy, it wasn't until his uncle Bob wrote to Chelsea that he gave himself a chance. With the words of Bob ringing in his ears – ‘Come on now, you can’t let me down’ – he grasped it with both hands.

Dickie Foss, the former Blues half-back and the man running what was already being talked about in football circles as one of the finest youth set-ups in the land, took all of 30 minutes to make his mind up.

‘You had natural ability,’ he told Osgood. ‘You moved well, hit the ball with both feet instinctively. It was the way you played the ball rather than what you did it with it that impressed me.’

Funnily enough, his early performances in the youth and reserve sides were also met with approval by a man whose Chelsea goal tally he would later go on to equal: Roy Bentley.

‘His father was working at Buckingham Palace,’ recalled the man who captained Chelsea to our first championship in 1955. ‘And I was talking to him about this up and coming footballer, not knowing he was Peter's father. I used to go and watch the youngsters and you didn’t need to know much to see he had something, and I knew he was going to be great.’

Tommy Docherty gave Ossie his first-team break as a Blue

Only 10 months later The Man From Uncle – as his new team-mates wryly dubbed him – had stepped up into the first team, just the latest diamond to be shine under Docherty's infectiously enthusiastic management.

‘I’ve always been a great believer that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough,’ said the Doc, years later, when evaluating Osgood. ‘People said to me, “He’s a good player but he’s got no experience.” You can’t just say to a player here’s five years’ experience, though. He’s got to go and play; good and bad, have setbacks and so on.

‘We had a wealth of talent, and I thought, “What are they playing in the youth team for? They’re too good for the youth team.” So, I started bringing them into the first team.’

Doc was repaid by Ossie netting twice on his debut in a League Cup tie against Workington. The next morning the 17-year-old bought a copy of each newspaper to begin his first scrapbook.

Osgood alongside team-mates Allan Young, Marvin Hinton and Peter Bonetti

Although he had to wait for another chance, with the Blues going for glory in all three domestic competitions right up until the final weeks of the 1964/65 season, England came calling and handed him a call-up for a youth tournament dubbed 'the little World Cup'. Ossie was named as the best player in the competition, despite England losing the final to East Germany.

Without his young charge having so much has graced the turf in a First Division match, Docherty was already tipping him for the top.

‘I’d like to bet you fellows a year’s wages that my centre-forward Peter Osgood could, if he tried a little harder, be England’s centre-forward for the 1966 World Cup,’ he told the assembled hacks ahead of the new season.

His big chance to impress Alf Ramsey came in a practice match for the Three Lions – against his Chelsea team-mates! Looking for a tune up ahead of their match against Wales, but without the services of centre-forward Alan Peacock, Ossie was 'loaned' to England. He duly found the back of the net not once, but twice, and clearly enjoyed getting one over on his mate Peter Bonetti between the sticks for the Blues. ‘Pick that one out, Catty,’ he exclaimed after netting his second.

It wasn't long before he was given an extended run in Chelsea’s starting line-up at the expense of crowd favourite Barry Bridges, who had been involved in the infamous Blackpool incident the previous season and was soon to be heading for the exit door. Docherty, famously, had told Osgood not to panic if things didn’t start off according to plan – no matter what, he would be given a 10-game run to show his worth.

After a slow start, he scored a wonder goal in the snow at Villa Park, beating four men and hammering home from a tight angle. Others were beginning to stand up and take notice.

With the Blues enjoying an extended run in Europe for the first time, seeing off Italian giants Roma and AC Milan, envious glances were being cast from Serie A. Milan manager Nils Liedolhm, one of the all-time greats, predicted that Osgood would be ‘the star of England’s national side’. Soon, the club were in receipt of, as Ossie put it, a ‘gigantic offer’ from an Italian club.

Celebrating against AC Milan in the Fairs Cup

He had grown up idolising Jimmy Greaves and, perhaps wary of following his hero's ill-fated decision to leave Chelsea to chase the lira, the idea wasn't even entertained. Besides, the club had just helped him celebrate his 19th birthday by giving him a house near Twickenham.

Before his teenage years were out, however, fate was to deal Osgood a cruel hand. In the space of 18 months he had gone from being paid £10 as a bricklayer to being rated as one of English football’s brightest talents, but his career soon lay in tatters.

A broken leg, suffered in a challenge with Blackpool's Emlyn Hughes, was to rule him out of the game for a year. As well as the physical scars left by such an injury, the manner of the break affected him mentally.

Watching footage of Osgood pre- and post-injury is akin to comparing two different players. In one clip from a game at Anfield, the speed and grace with which this gangly centre-forward bursts through banks of midfielders and defenders is startling; after his comeback, he had lost not one, but maybe even two yards of pace, noticeably filling himself out in order to deal with the bruising centre-halves he faced on a weekly basis.

Ossie's famous diving header against Leeds United

As any great player should, he adapted. After a spell in midfield during the 1968/69 season, his now legendary strike partnership with Ian Hutchinson was struck up in the following campaign.

For every yard of pace he had lost on the ground, he regained it in his head, aided by a velcro-like first touch and preying on the apprehension of defenders who perhaps began to think twice about giving a clump to a bloke who was now well versed in the dark arts of the game.

FA Cup glory, of course, was to follow and Osgood was a scorer in every round – a feat which hasn't been achieved since – before he led us to European silverware in the Cup Winners’ Cup. Nobody could touch him as the King of Stamford Bridge.

By Richard Godden

Joey was not going to stop his famous fist salute - even after being hauled before the FA

Article published June 2020

JOEY JONES was never going to stop his famous-fist salute - even after he was hauled before the Football Association for claims he had incited a riot at a Chelsea game

“I did it all the time at Liverpool and never got into any trouble but at Chelsea it was different,” said Jones, who has as much pride for the Blues fans as they do for him.

Fans in The Shed End loved players like Jones, who would regularly give opposing players the Chelsea boot as well as sending the natives crazy with his now legendary gesture

“I had to go before the FA John Neal and chairman Ken Bates came to say words for me and I was accused of inciting a riot at a game and warned not to do it again or I’d be fined and banned,” said Jones, who spent just under three years at Stamford Bridge, playing almost 100 games.

Life wasn’t easy for Jones, who originally didn’t want to uproot from Wrexham but the Racecourse cash had run-out and John Neal, the former Reds manager who nurtured him during his early days as a professional, got his man for a steal - just £34,000.

He was sent off on his debut and because he decided to stay in Wrexham, he commuted to West London - every day of the week!

“For 18 months I did that,” recalled Jones. “I’d leave home five o’clock every morning. The training ground was near Heathrow Airport in those days. I’d finish training and then drive straight back home.

Then Mickey Thomas signed for Chelsea and we shared the driving. He was living in Rhyl so he had to leave home at four.

“The only night we stayed over was a Friday night for a home game on Saturday. I couldn’t see many Premier League players doing that now.

“Although I did stay in the ground one night - Mickey kipped there on a few more occasions than me because he knew someone who had the keys.”

Thomas and Jones had long been the best of pals by the time Neal - the man who took them from the North Wales coast to Wrexham in the early Seventies - reunited them at Chelsea with another ex-Reds youngster, Eddie Niedzwiecki.

“I remember the first day I met Mickey,” said Jones. “We were both picked for North Wales Schoolboys under 15s. I was on the bus already and we picked up players on the way.

“Mickey was one of them and he sat next to me. He had his school uniform on and I remember looking at his tie. It was red and grey and in the grey bits he’d written Everton all over it with pen.

“Obviously I was Liverpool but we hit it off straight away and been best mates ever since. He’s like a brother to me.

“And bringing Mickey in was another masterstroke from Joh

“There were also good men still around. Players like Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris was one but his career was coming to an end.

“He was one of football’s hardmen but then tackling was allowed back then. Me and Ron would never have got away with things now we used to do in the old days.

“I’ didn’t really consider myself a hardman - not with my socks rolled down by ankle and legs that looked like two pieces of string coming down from my shorts.

“I never used to wear shin-pads, didn’t like them. But then we had to wear them. I used to put them in my socks with a bit of tape but I never wore tie-ups - they just never felt right.

“Not that it stopped me making tackles. I liked a tackle and I know the fans like to see a good tackle. I supposed that’s why I like Tommy Smith so much.

“If Tommy Smith said he was going to get you, then Tommy Smith would get you!”

Back to the Bridge and Jones described Chelsea as a ‘great club’ and that he still keeps in touch with a lot of fans he made down there 36 years ago.

“I’ve got strong ties with Chelsea. I loved the fans. I think they could see that I was more of a fan who just loved to be playing football

“Some fans I speak to say they preferred it back in the 80s than they do now because they felt closer to the players.”

Edited March 2, 20251 yr by erskblue

Full Members Cup Final, 1986.

1 hour ago, Boyne said:

Full Members Cup Final, 1986.

Left to right: Cat Bonetti, then goalkeeping coach; Eddie in a dodgy shiny suit having done his knee (hence the crutches) - Francis played in the final and I think left us not long afterwards: not sure who next (offers please), and finally the stand-in for Inspector Blakey from On the Buses (remember that?) in the doorway. Boom boom.

Darren Wood and Big Doug. Wembley 86.

Big Doug and Wee Pat.

Eddie.

King Kerry,Keith Jones and Kevin McAllister in the home team dressing room.

Edited March 3, 20251 yr by erskblue

Match Report of the famous 4-2 FA Cup win in Jan 1978.

The 4-3 comeback game v Bolton in Oct 1978.

1970 v Spurs. John Hollins, Alan Birchenhall, and Martin Peters.

Edited March 4, 20251 yr by erskblue

April 1986.

Guardian - Copyright © 2020 Newspapers.com. All Rights Reserved.

Match Report of the game of 4th March 1978.

A corner about to come in v Leeds at The Bridge. David Webb waits.  Late 60s or very early 70s,

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/chelseas-120th-anniversary-celebrations-to-begin

Edited March 8, 20251 yr by erskblue

20 years today.