SAINTS v Chelsea is always a glamorous fixture and today's match is also very timely, coming just a few days before the tenth anniversary of the great Peter Osgood's passing.

It was on March 1, 2006 that Ossie sadly died from a heart attack, aged 59. Like his old friend and teammate Alan Ball, he left us far too early.

Ossie of course made his name in London in the Swinging Sixties with Chelsea and was in England's 1970 World Cup squad.

But it was not only football supporters who admired him. A succession of film stars would turn up regularly at Chelsea, in particular a certain Raquel Welch who was brought to a game for publicity purposes.

Dave Sexton, my friend and Chelsea's manager at the time, wasn't too happy with the attention she received but Jimmy Hill, another legend who sadly left us recently, persuaded him to let Raquel attend.

She decided to leave before the end but first made her way on to the touchline to blow kisses to Ossie. Knowing Pete as well as I did he would not have minded that at all.

Other visitors to Stamford Bridge's famous tea room were big names like Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Ronnie Corbett, Paul Newman and John Wayne. 

After lunch on the Kings Road, showbusiness stars would trot along to the Bridge for the afternoon. At times, it must have been a manager's nightmare to keep the players' attention on the game.

Ossie had been at Chelsea for ten years when I signed him in 1974.

I'd heard that he and his fellow forward Alan Hudson had a fall out with Dave. When I realised it might be possible to get Ossie my board supported me and I was able to stop him joining Hudson at Stoke City.

We had to pay what was then a club record £275,000 fee but it enabled Ossie, who was born and bred in Windsor, to stay in the south.

His arrival at the Dell changed things dramatically for Southampton FC. He was the first of many big names I was able to bring in over the years, most of them towards the end of their careers as I couldn't have afforded them at their peak.

That started my system of putting old heads together with the young legs coming through from the youth centres I established in Newcastle, London and Bristol.

Ossie only played the last ten games of his first season as we had to win the last one to have a chance of staying up (that year was the first time three teams, as opposed to two, were to be relegated).

We went to Everton, never an easy game, and won 3-0, with Peter scoring his first goal for the club after arriving short of match fitness.

Unfortunately other results went against us and we went down. But the board stuck by me and I was able to make some changes and of course get us promoted four years later.

The FA Cup win came inbetween and one of the stars was Peter. Like some of the others, he had not expected to play at Wembley again.

I always maintain the light went on for 90 mins and he certainly played his part.

There are many stories about his time in the game and I'm sure lots of older supporters will tell me about meeting up with Pete and some of the other players.

A week or so after the FA Cup win I took them down to a casino on Portswood Road. The Cup was passed around and the supporters loved having their pictures taken with the players.

As the evening went on my wife and I made a quiet exit, but the next morning I was woken by a call from the chairman, exclaiming: Where's the FA Cup?!

I obviously didn't know but said I'd ring him back. So I rang club secretary Keith Honey, who had reported the loss.

Like me, Keith had left before the players, who still had the Cup at the time.

It turned out the last two to leave were Peter and Jim Steele. Apparently they decided to stop at a stall near the Guildhall that served tea and coffee into the early hours.

You can only imagine the welcome they got from the small crowd.When the man running the stall said "the drinks are on me and would you like your tea in a cup or a mug?", Ossie went to his car, took the FA Cup out of the boot and said "stick it in there".

The next morning I was in my office earlier than usual. While waiting for the team to arrive I heard a door open followed by a clanging noise and running footsteps.

When I had a look, there was the FA Cup lying sadly on the floor. I picked it up, brushed it down and went to the dressing room where the players were quietly sitting reading the paper, smiling.

I realised I would never get an answer but was at least able to reassure the chairman.

That was typical of the sort of lad Peter was. His lovely wife Lyn was a good influence at the family home in Windsor and on the field he was fantastic; 6ft 2in with a delicate touch and the ability to score with his head and feet.

In those days the likes of Norman Hunter and Tommy Smith kicked lumps off forwards, but Peter was able to look after himself and, as I found out, return the favour.

In one game, against our friends and neighbours Pompey would you believe, our centre-half was taken off and we were hanging on to the lead.

So I shouted at Peter to drop back. He played the latter part of the game at centre-half.

Afterwards I said "well done for filling in" and he replied "I could play there for another 20 years boss!". He was popular throughout the game, he always had a smile and a great attitude to life in general.

He was unlucky to have a big injury which affected his England chances, otherwise he would have won many more than four caps.

After moving on in 1977, he had a short spell in America with Philadelphia Fury where one of his teammates was Bally.

You would not get a better couple of lads to manage, watch from the stands or have night out with. I'm sure they're together now and God bless them both.