On August 10 1970 Bobby Moore received an anomynous threat to kidnap his wife and hold her to a £10,000 ransom.
This caused him, unfortunately, to pull out of a pre-season friendlies against Bristol City and Bournemouth. However, his services to West Ham were rewarded with a testimonial match against Celtic at the end of 1970. However, although he was seen as an icon and a perfect influence on the game, Moore was not without his faults or controversies. On January 7, 1971, he and three West Ham team-mates - Jimmy Greaves, Brian Dear and Clyde Best - were all fined by West Ham manager Greenwood after going out drinking in a nightclub until the early hours of the morning prior to an FA Cup third round tie against Blackpool. The nightclub in Blackpool was owned by Moore's friend, boxer Brian London. West Ham lost the tie 4-0. They were all fined a whole week's wages. Blackpool were the bottom of Division one at the time, and were relegated at the end of the season. Ironically, Moore was featured on TV as the subject on This is your life the night before. It was not uncommon for Moore to enjoy a night on the town, but he was often seen in the gym or on the pitch at West Ham on a Sunday morning - usually the players' day off - working off the alcohol he had consumed the night before.
Moore surpassed West Ham's appearances record in 1973 when he played for the club for the 509th time. Three days earlier, on Valentine's Day 1973, he won his 100th cap for England in a comprehensive 5-0 win over Scotland at Hampden Park. By this stage, only Peters and Alan Ball from the 1966 squad were also still involved with the England team - the rest had either retired or dropped by Ramsey, even though a handful of them were younger than Moore.
Later the same year, Moore was exposed defensively by Poland in a qualifier for the 1974 World Cup in Chorzów, deflecting a free kick past Peter Shilton to put the home side ahead, and then losing possession to Wlodzimierz Lubanski, who scored the second. His form had dipped enough for Ramsey to choose not to select him for the return game at Wembley, which England had to win to qualify. Any other result would send Poland through. Moore is understood to have asked Ramsey if this meant he was no longer required, to which Ramsey replied: "Of course not. I need you as my captain at the World Cup next year." It never happened, as England could only draw 1-1. It signalled the end of Ramsey's reign - he was sacked six months later - and Moore later told how he sat alongside Ramsey on the bench and kept urging him to make a substitution, only for Ramsey to freeze suddenly when it came to decision-making. When Kevin Hector finally did come on for Martin Chivers after 85 minutes Moore could be seen on TV yanking down Hector's tracksuit bottoms while Ramsey sat immobile. Moore, later, said to David Miller "you could feel the minutes escaping. I said to Alf we need someone to go through the middle. He just nodded. We couldn't get Kevin out there quick enough. We almost threw him onto the pitch."
Moore won his 108th and final cap in the next game, a 1-0 friendly defeat to Italy on November 14 1973. He became England's most capped player, beating Bobby Charlton's record by two appearances, and equalled Billy Wright's record of 90 appearances as captain. Shilton has since overtaken the caps record, but Moore remains in second place, and the captaincy record also remains.
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