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PETER OSGOOD's ENGLAND FOOTBALL CAREER.
"Far too mercurial for his own good" was how one critic labelled Peter Osgood when assessing the attitude and abilities of the beloved Chelsea frontman (he is pictured above playing for the Blues) in terms of succeeding in his country's shirt. For all his skills, charisma, ability to hurt and scare defenders and score tremendous goals, Alf Ramsey simply did not trust him to do the right thing in a team situation. Osgood debuted for England after scoring more than 20 goals in Chelsea's memorable 1969/70 season, when the cocky No.9 also found the net in every round as they won the FA Cup. He played in a fearsome three-strong attack alongside the settled Francis Lee and Geoff Hurst as England defeated Belgium 3-1 in Brussels, but didn't feature again - even as a sub - as Ramsey chopped and changed his side in order to experiment as much as possible prior to defending the World Cup. Despite sitting out five games since his debut, Osgood made Ramsey's final 22 but seemed to be last in the large strikers' pecking order, with Lee and Hurst joined also by Jeff Astle and Allan Clarke for competition.
Peter deputised late on in the opener against Romania for Lee, then replaced Astle in the final group game against Czechoslovakia. Yet when it was believed that he could really make a difference through the form of his life which he'd shown at Chelsea, Ramsey chose not to put any fresh attacking legs on, even after England had seen their 2-0 quarter-final lead against West Germany pegged back to 2-2. England lost after extra time, and Osgood's name came up frequently in an angry and bitter post-mortem. Peter maintained his form and front at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea won European honours and reached a League Cup final, but it was only when Ramsey was on his knees, having not qualified for the 1974 World Cup, that Osgood received an odd recall. He played ineffectively against Italy at Wembley in a friendly which the visitors won 1-0, and never returned. While not quite in the Bowles/Worthington/Currie/Marsh maverick category, there was a major element of mistrust over Osgood, which was indicative of the cautious, puritanical viewpoint of footballers which helped England drag itself down through the 1970s. There were no guarantees that Osgood could have saved England in 1970, of course, but it nags hard to this day that it would have been worthwhile giving him a go. (Matthew Rudd)
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