No player deserves their moment in the sun more than Osman
Everton FC v Leicester City FC at Supachalasai National Stadium in Bangkok in a pre season friendly. Leon Osman
It's increasingly rare to find a club-man in the modern Premier league who is not simply there to tick a box but because he’s still got plenty to offer his team.
Leon Osman is the rare sort of player who is cherished in these increasingly transfer-crazy times as an individual who has stayed loyal to the cause.
More than that, he has found a way to stay relevant and important during an evolving domestic scene when a player not blessed with particular height or brute physical strength has nonetheless kept ahead of the pack.
Osman carved his niche under David Moyes, the manager he owes the mainstay of his longevity to even if at times he suffered for his flexibility and the Scot’s propensity to use such players to the full extent of their adaptability.
Osman played in every position across the midfield under Moyes, and clocked up an impressive 345 appearances during that 11-year spell including two belated England caps.
He was one of Moyes’ mini-managers; often the first name on his team sheet such was his belief in the Billinge-born performer.
He also scored some sensational goals during that era; memorably a header against Manchester City when the 5ft8in schemer out-jumped the towering Vincent Kompany to score, and ‘that’ goal against Larissa in the 2007 Uefa Cup.
Yet while he was a favourite of Moyes, he occasionally divided opinion among the supporters as some seemed to rally against him in that unique way because he was one of their own, and tacitly there to be shot at.
Would he – the doubters speculated – fade out of the picture when a new man took charge?
Last season was when Osman faced that question and dashed any notion that his long career beforehand was simply thanks to one manager’s preferences.
If anything he exploded that myth with ten tonnes of dynamite. Osman featured in every game under the Catalan last season, even if not always from the start, and his enduring fitness and consistency was a major element of the club’s fifth place finish.
What’s more the 33-year-old seemed to flourish under a manager who advocates the style of passing which he was born to thrive
under.
If any of the club’s current ball playing young midfielders, and they are blessed with several from John Lundstram to Liam Walsh, they can look up to no greater example than Osman.
He’s the ultimate professional who never kicks up a stink, trains hard regardless of the niggling injuries which beset any man past 30, and does anything asked of him. Let’s hope a hearty crowd can applaud him at Goodison tomorrow, Ossie deserves it.
