Dickie Foss

Who is Dickie Foss?

Sidney Richard 'Dickie' Foss was an English football player and coach, who had a 30 year association with Chelsea.

Born in Barking, Foss started out with amateur side Southall, before signing for Chelsea in 1936. Playing at half-back, Foss made 48 appearances for the club, and was one of only a handful of players to play for Chelsea both before and after World War II. However, it was behind the scenes that Foss would make his most significant contribution to Chelsea. He was one of the founders of the club's new youth system in 1947, and subsequently became youth team manager.

Under Foss's charge, Chelsea's youth set-up flourished, producing players such as Jimmy Greaves, Peter Osgood, Terry Venables, Peter Bonetti, John Hollins and Bobby Tambling, the core of the team which saw the club become a force in English football for the first time during the 1960s and early 1970s. Chelsea's youth team won the FA Youth Cup in 1960 and 1961, and were champions of their youth league three times in five years between 1954 and 1959.

He left the job in the late 1960s and died in August 1995.