Derby County v Sheffield United: Love for Rams long gone as Ben Osborn helps Blades turn corner

“I’ve kind of just ruined it for the whole family,” admits the Sheffield United utility man who has turned relatives and friends off his boyhood club from the city he comes from.

Anyone who knows much about East Midlands football will realise not many players who wear the colours of Nottingham Forest fare particularly well in popularity contests in Derby. Osborn not only did that for six years, he went one further, scoring a wonder goal against the Rams on his Forest debut.

He thinks he might be low-profile enough for Derby fans to have forgotten about him, and that Jayden Bogle, who left Pride Park for Bramall Lane 18 months ago, might get the brunt of the abuse instead this afternoon. Billy Sharp was the man singled out when the sides played in September, making his point after scoring the winning penalty.

Quietly, though, Osborn would not mind hearing from the boo-boys himself.

“I think so,” he says. “It just gives you a little bit more drive maybe. It just makes it more enjoyable, it’s what it’s about at the end of the day, the atmosphere from the fans.

“If you’re having a bit of a stinker and the fans are on you I imagine it can get quite daunting but touch wood I don’t think I’ve really experienced that before.”

Osborn’s relationship with the Rams has certainly been an odd one.

“I haven’t supported Derby for years,” he says.

“The majority of my mates are Derby fans but I came through the ranks at Forest and ended up disliking them. It (playing against them) doesn’t mean as much to me as it once did.

“My dad was a die-hard Derby fan his whole life and then ended up watching me for Forest so naturally his love for Derby kind of went away a little bit to the point where he has no affiliation with them and he’ll just follow me and support me.

“I’ve kind of just ruined it for the whole family, they don’t know who to support now!

“My first professional goal and it ended up being a last-minute winner against the city I was from. That was the day the Derby connections ended for my family.

“Similar to my family, my mates are so used to it now. Half of them follow my career so they’ll probably be hoping for a draw.

“They’re often at Bramall Lane now coming to watch the Blades. I’m just ruining everybody’s boyhood club!”

Osborn’s time at Sheffield United has been a strange one too because he has become so hard to categorise, such is his versatility. For his manager Paul Heckingbottom it is a big help. For Osborn, less so.

“Ozzie’s played all over the place,” says Heckingbottom, who will be watching from home this afternoon after testing positive for Covid-19.

“We’ve had good chats with Oz and we want to try and use him in attacking positions. If he does play wing-back it’s still a very attacking position for him because he loves to get forward and his energy levels are top class.

“It’s an important characteristic if you want to have a smaller, leaner squad and we want that next season but we want a better squad, a squad with high quality.

“Having players who are versatile is a big part of that.

“Not everyone can do it. One of Ozzie’s strengths is he gets the game tactically, he understands the different roles.

“He understands the different responsibilities in performing those roles. He does understand the game.”

Osborne thinks the fact he has been studying for his coaching badges helps – he is currently working on his A licence – but admits he would rather be known as a specialist than a Jack of all trades.

“It’s certainly been quite frustrating over the last couple of years being moved to different positions because you struggle to become a specialist in one,” he says. “You could be training all week as a left wing-back and working on the defensive side of your game and next minute you’re thrown forward and looking at a whole different type of game.

“It’s something I’ve tried to shake off in the last year or so but on the other hand I think it is kind of the way the game’s going.

“At the top, a lot of players will play numerous positions, even in a game. They might rotate.

“Man City might play without a striker and just have a front six all moving in front of one sitter. It’s similar with Chelsea, putting a few of their attacking players at wing-back so I think it might get that way in the future but it certainly has been frustrating at times.”

What has been a positive for him was the decision to appoint Heckingbottom as manager in November.

It was clear during his caretaker spell in charge for the last three months of last season what a fan he was of Osborn’s.

“Luckily enough I think most managers I’ve played under I’ve got on with and may have rated me because I’ve been lucky enough to play most of the time,” says Osborn, whose contract is up at the end of the season, but who hopes to stay. “I got on well with the gaffer when he was caretaker last year and he was the one who sort of started playing me a bit further forward.

“I remember having a conversation at the time with him but I got on well with Slav (Heckingbottom’s predecessor Slavisa Jokanovic) too.

“I was definitely pleased when I heard the gaffer was taking over on a permanent basis, though.

“There was a big transition before in the style of play, formations, whatever. It was just maybe not the best fit for what we have.

“We have sort of gone back although it’s not exactly the same as it was under (Chris) Wilder but it’s certainly more similar.”