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God in royal blue

stingers

Monday, August 28th, 2006

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Wolf-hungry, towering, glowering
Viking-like, plundering and pillaging
To me – a wide-eyed four-year-old fan
You were a god

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 Standing on the steps of the Shed
Among the beer and sweat of the terraces
All I could hear – throbbing in my ears – was your name
“OSGOOD! OSGOOD!”

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 The only hero I had before was my father
But you were different – deadly, dangerous
That wicked grin, arms punching the air
To mark another goal

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 For five years, you were my north and south
My idol, my ambition, my deity
They hailed you the king of Stamford Bridge
And I worshipped you

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 And then — one awful day — my god was toppled
Not overthrown or beaten, but sold like a prize cow
Stomach-sick, I had to see you play in red and white
The stripes of shame

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 You came back to Chelsea a few years later
In our hour of need, the returning king
But you were slow and slothful, and couldn’t save us
Ossie, what happened?

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 No longer a god, you were just another footballer
What made you mortal – the boos? Or the booze?
Or was it me – had I grown too old for idols?
Everything had changed

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 Since then, like any fan, I’ve had my favourites
But none like Osgood, none filled my world
They all were flawed, all failed as a replacement
No-one came close

9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 I don’t believe in heroes now – and yet somewhere
Inside me is still the wide-eyed four-year-old
Who gapes in awe at the number 9 and the sideburns
At the god in royal blue

© Robert Rea

Notes

Peter Osgood, Chelsea legend, played 279 times for the Blues between 1964 and 1974, before being sold to Southampton after a row with the manager Dave Sexton. He died in March 2006, but remains immortal to all of us who saw him play at his peak in the Chelsea sides of the 1960s and early 70s.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/god-in-royal-blue/