Bobby Moore: The Man in Full

Author:Matt Dickinson [Dickinson, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports, Sports & Recreation, Non-Fiction, Biography & Autobiography, Soccer, Football
ISBN: 9781446483329
Google: S3ln8mZEdEIC
Amazon: B00KCRP9HK
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

16. Read All About It

FAME HAS ALWAYS been a double-edged sword but it was only in the wake of Bogotá that Bobby Moore began to feel its capacity to wound. Until then he had been a man with such a squeaky clean image that the only danger was in appearing dull.

‘Perhaps everything has gone too smoothly in my career – no sensational transfers, no brawls, no scandals,’ he noted, before Bogotá. ‘My best friends sometimes tell me that whatever publicity I get tends to make me sound “goody-goody”, a sort of super Boy Scout.’

For years he had enjoyed exposure on his own terms, keeping his cancer secret, his boozing out of the papers and any other indiscretions, too. Moore had not put a foot wrong or, if he had, no one had noticed or thought to make an exposé out of it.

Moore had laboured painstakingly not to cause upset. When he filled out a questionnaire for Shoot! magazine, he dealt even with the gentlest probing as though it was a minefield of diplomacy. Toughest opponent? ‘They are all difficult.’ Best country visited? ‘I like many countries.’ Best friend? ‘I have many friends.’ When he revealed that his favourite meal was liver and bacon, onions, mushroom and spinach, he probably worried that it would cause offence to shepherd’s pie.

For a man used to such control over his public image, to be dragged into a scandal of Bogotá proportions was a nightmare. Moore was being given the benefit of any doubt by the world’s newspapers but it was hurtful enough just to see his name in the headlines. Even if no one thought he was capable of theft, inevitably there were still nudge-nudge rumours and unwelcome reminders.

When Moore played at Anfield for the first time after the World Cup finals, the Kop burst gleefully into a chant of ‘we know you’ve got the bracelet, we know you’ve got the bracelet, na naaa naaa na …’. As Moore travelled around the country, the Scousers were not the only crowd to delight in his discomfort.

There had always been opposition players trying to wind him up, hoping to shatter that cool façade. Moore had put up with it for years but now the stick came with added relish. One of the worst cases involved Billy Meadows when West Ham played Hereford in the FA Cup. The non-league striker saw his chance for fifteen minutes of fame, and a good story to tell his mates in the bar, if he could rattle England’s captain. Meadows drew on any ammunition he could, about Moore’s wife, family and Bogotá.

‘Bobby had always had players trying to wind him up but this was really diabolical stuff,’ Harry Redknapp recalls. ‘It was driving Bobby mad. It went to a replay and Meadows did the same again. You could see Bobby seething but he wouldn’t bite. Afterwards in the bar Meadows comes up to Bobby, ‘all right, Mooro?’ like nothing has happened. Anyone else would have wanted to flatten him. Bobby still wouldn’t bite.

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