A particularly obnoxious little runt with a proclivity for writing letters of complaint to Big Brother recently opined in his inimitable fashion that Bobby Moore would not survive in the modern game. Now given this guy is supposed to be a West Ham fan, I thought that was a bit of a jock strap tightener and it certainly had me squealing. Bobby Moore, the only England player I have seen in my lifetime (apart maybe from Banks) who would get anywhere near an All Time World XI, not good enough for the modern game? Really?
Sadly the individual concerned declines debate so there is little prospect of getting him to explain this outlandish statement. If he means that Moore's fitness levels and personal lifestyle would not fit the modern era then fair enough, but what footballer from the 50's, 60's or 70's would be able to cope with the physical demands of the modern game? None. Even Colin Bell would be shagged inside 45 minutes! But that is missing the point. Transport the player to the modern era and you would transport him to modern training, fitness and dietary regimes (unless his name is Beano Ashton!). The 2009 version of Bobby Moore would know the dangers of fags and best bitter and would be conditioned on the training field to cope with the physical stresses of the super fast modern game.
Let's remember that despite his playboy lifestyle, Moore was a determined individual who overcame cancer to pursue his playing dreams. Yes the game is faster now but I would love to see Torres and co playing on Baseball Ground style mudbaths and coping with up to 60 games over a season. And the game was harder then. Giles, Bremner, Jack Charlton, Chopper Harris, Peter Storey, Norman Hunter...the roll call of names alone is enough make your shins ache and the cartilage pop out of your knee caps. These players made the game so much harder physically and it is true that they would never have been able to translate their games to the modern era, the red card would be waved in their faces before they made it out of the dressing room!
So what is it exactly about Moore that would not have translated to the Premiership and international stage in 2009? Is there no place for a range of passing equalled only in my lifetime by Glenn Hoddle? Dear God, when I hear the eulogies for Beckham when he plays a forty yard pass with the modern light weight ball, I wonder how the commentators would have coped with a Moore pass played from the edge of his own box to bounce perfectly in front of Hurst to facilitate a thumping half volley shot that near burst the back of the net. Long ball? Not when Moore did it, the pass was pinpoint in direction and weight and arrived at the foot of the receiver gift wrapped with claret and blue ribbons attached. Look at the delivery of the ball for the goals in the World Cup Final. This was from a centre back, a defender, not from the midfield magician. Beckham does it and we hear, "He's worth his place in the team for that alone". Well Moore stepped forward to deliver Beckham balls into the box from free kicks and Peters and Hurst gobbled the gifts like the Hebrews feasted upon their manna from Heaven.
So perhaps the poison dwarf was referring to Moore's habit of reading the game so that he rarely had to tackle. Well that is strange because the gripe from the old pros is that the modern game is killing the art of tackling. "It's a man's game, there's nothing wrong with a good hard tackle". Well Moore thought so. His defending was not based on clogging or blocking, but on reading the intentions of the opposition. Like a goal poacher attracts the ball to his foot in the opposition box, so Moore had this uncanny ability to KNOW where the ball was going to be played and to get there ahead of the opposition striker. It was intuition, a special skill that cannot be taught. Owen, Lineker and Greaves had it as strikers; Lampard seems to possess it this season; Peters had it when he ghosted into the box; but Moore and Beckenbauer were the only two defenders I have seen who read the game with the same degree of intuition. Defenders do not appear the brightest biscuits in the cookie jar, which is why strikers find it so easy to get across them, but Moore and his Kaiser counterpart were the exceptions to that rule.
So perhaps it is pace? But the whole point about Moore is that he never depended upon speed, not speed in the legs at least, his speed was in the head, this art of seeing the game five seconds ahead of the play, knowing what was about to happen as if he had seen the film before and so was able to predict the future. Of course he made mistakes, of course he was done from time to time, of course the West Ham teams he played in shipped goals like Carson in an England shirt. But I don't think Moore really cared. For him it was a game and perhaps that's where he may have struggled in the modern day. "So we lost, but we had a bloody good night out in Blackpool didn't we?" kind of attitude! The modern manager couldn't cope with that but I suspect that Moore would see life differently now - a win or clean sheet bonus of ten grand would probably have given him a little more day to day, match to match, minute to minute focus. If Rio can learn consistency, I'm damn sure Moore would have!
But to nail the heresy finally I point you to that epic World Cup tussle with Pele and Brazil in 1970. That Brazil team were the best the world has ever seen. They ripped Italy apart in the final and survive to this day as a pantheon of footballing gods - CARLOS ALBERTO, JAIRZINHO, TOSTAO, RIVELINO, PAULO CESAR and PELE . Look at the England side. Outside of Moore, Banks and Peters, we were, in truth, nothing that special. Hurst struggled with the heat, Charlton was past his best, Labone only managed 26 caps, Wright was lightweight, Franny Lee was the opposite! On paper we should have been mullered and but for the brilliance of two men, Banks (one great save) and Moore, we would have been. At the end of that game, as they swapped shirts, the great Pele said to Moore, "See you in the final". The respect was mutual, two of the greatest footballing talents the world has seen had come head to head and, despite the score, the honours were even. But Pele had been at the pinacle of a brilliant team, a team powered by a Ferrari engine; Moore was the cotter pin that held a rickety penny farthing of a side together. To have exited that game the equal of Pele in the circumstances was nothing short of incredible. Despite the heat, despite Bogotta, despite the limitations of the players around him, Moore had matched Pele and won his undying respect.
How dare anybody suggest that Moore would have been found wanting in the modern game. Moore was made for football in the C21st - a defender who did not tackle because he didn't need to with the ability to hit a lead weight of a ball sixty yards up the field onto the foot of his own player. That sort of quality today would command the same values as Kaka! My challenge, Beckenbauer apart, is for anybody to name me somebody his equal!
