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Top team: Sylvester Stallone, Bobby Moore and Michael Caine together in 1981 after they all appeared in the World War II film‘ Escape to Victory’ for the manager’ s job there but it didn’ t materialise. Bobby increasingly withdrew into himself as he received knockback after knockback. He’ d wake with a scream from a recurring nightmare.‘ I’ m running in sand,’ he would tell me.‘ I can’ t get anywhere.’ The golden Bobby that everyone worshipped was slowly dying inside. One night he took me out to dinner, poured two glasses of champagne and said,‘ Tina, I love you. You deserve the finest things in life but I can’ t do that anymore. I can’ t afford it.’ His spirit seemed crushed. It was then that our marriage hit the rocks.”
Ironically enough, in February 1993, Taylor was managing England while Moore was working for a London radio station so both were at Wembley for a World Cup qualifier against San Marino. It was the last time I saw Moore alive. Although news of his cancer had broken that day, he still insisted on coming to work and was dressed as stylishly as ever. He walked swiftly past the journalists in the press box, the collar of his leather jacket turned up and with a large cap firmly fixed over his head. He was pale and clearly ill but he just got on with his job. A week later, he was dead.
So why did football turn its back on such a charming, considerate and charismatic man? Looking back, it is quite staggering that, after his final match for Fulham in 1977 he was largely ignored by the football authorities.
Imagine that happening today to a man who had captained England to victory in the World Cup final.
Other countries look after their heroes properly. People like Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff went on to manage their national teams while others like Bobby Charlton and Gerd Müller are held in high esteem by former clubs. So what did Bobby Moore do so wrong? Beats me. He certainly deserved more – so much more – than to spend his final years writing for a downmarket Sunday newspaper and working as a radio pundit. Perhaps, if ITV commissions a three-part series on the 50th anniversary of his death, we might get to learn more. Q
SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 69