Bob Wilson - back to my roots

Dan Pope, Club Website editor

Bob Wilson has been involved in the British football scene for almost half a century. A highly successful playing career at Arsenal led to a role as the club’s goalkeeping coach for some 28 years, whilst also becoming a familiar face on both BBC and ITV in a long and successful broadcasting career.

“I only ever wanted to be a footballer,” he says as we sit down to chat at the headquarters of the Willow Foundation, the charity founded by Bob and his wife Megs in memory of the daughter Anna a decade ago. Football memorabilia, including some from Wilson’s time at Arsenal, adorn the walls and it quickly becomes clear how important the beautiful game to him, and how grateful he is for getting the chance to spend his life working in a field he loves.

As with so many children, the football bug bit Bob Wilson at a very early age. The youngest of six, countless hours playing with his brothers had already taught the future goalkeeper that he was cut out for diving around.

© Chris George 24SE7EN magazine

“I had a natural ability to throw my body around and not hurt myself when I hit the floor, and I had very good hand-eye coordination” he tells me. “By the age of eight I knew that, but really the moment came that Christmas when an uncle gave me a blue goalkeeping jersey. I spent the whole day diving around the house!” And from that moment the young man’s footballing life was destined to be played between the sticks.

Wilson played as goalkeeper for his junior school and then Chesterfield Grammar School, for whom a staggering 34-game fixture list meant that there was no need, or indeed time, to turn out for a local Saturday or Sunday team. School football led to representative football for the town and county and, before he knew it, Wilson was playing in the England schoolboy side alongside one Norbert - Nobby - Stiles.

Despite this swift progression through the junior ranks to such a high level, Bob’s abiding memory of grassroots football sounds very familiar to those of us who never scaled such heights. “I remember the facilities and pitches that were shocking after the first six weeks of the season” he says.

“The camaraderie, having to pay your subs and wash your own gear. But it was being out there in all conditions – rain, hail, sleet or snow – but you were out there because you loved the game and everybody did the same. That was the great thing about grassroots football - it was just the love of the game.”

Wilson admits that he “would have carried on at grassroots level” if he hadn’t been fortunate enough to make a career in the game. For quite some time it appeared that this might be the only option available to him. His father, an ex-serviceman, wouldn’t allow him to become a footballer - “he said it wasn’t a proper job” - so Bob moved to Loughborough College where he studied to be a history and PE teacher.

Whilst studying at Loughborough, Wilson played “very high level amateur football” but felt that he would always remain playing at that level. “Except,” he adds mischievously, “I had this dream that I always wanted to be a footballer.”

He found his way into the reserve team at Wolverhampton Wanderers, often hitchhiking to and from games for the pleasure of doing so. After “a brief flirtation” with the West Midlands club, the opportunity presented itself to play for Arsenal in August 1963. Wilson was already 21 years of age.

Wilson’s arrival as a teacher “in a college scarf and a duffle coat” turned a few heads in the Highbury dressing room but, despite his amateur status, eight first team appearances came his way in that first season, making him the last non-professional to play top-flight football.

That first year was “quite painful” for Wilson, however, combining early starts for teaching at Rutherford School in Paddington with football training in the evening with first team colleagues who hadn’t exactly welcomed him in with open arms.

After qualifying as a teacher, Wilson signed for Arsenal in August 1964 at a cost of over £6,000 - the first transfer fee paid for an amateur - although his colleagues remained more than a little suspicious. “They didn’t think I could play” he says, and it took him a long time to prove himself. After four hard years slogging it out “in the wilderness” of the reserves, the big breakthrough eventually came in 1968 but, my, how the ‘teacher’ took his opportunity.

“When it happened, it happened so fast,” he tells me. “You can see the difference in me [on film]. It’s almost like something blossoming. There’s a confidence in me and suddenly I felt I belonged.”

By the time Arsenal won the European Fairs Cup in 1970, Wilson was a permanent fixture in the side, with a growing reputation as a maverick, daredevil goalkeeper but one of the best and bravest in the country. “People say 'the bravest goalie you’ll have seen is Bob Wilson,' but it wasn’t meant like that."

"It’s just that somebody up there gave me an ability to dive headlong at people’s feet without ever thinking I’d get a punctured lung, scars all over my head, left ear torn off, broken arm, dislocated shoulder, dislocated elbow, all the injuries that came my way during my career. But I never thought about it because if it meant me saving a goal then in I went. I look at the films now and I laugh. You see me coming up with the ball in my hands covered with mud and cuts and the referees saying ‘are you alright?’ But it was exciting for the fans!”

There is nothing a football fan likes more than to see a player put their body on the line for their club, so Wilson became a firm fans favourite. It was in the 1970/71 season, however, that he would write his name into Arsenal folklore, playing every single game in a campaign that saw Arsenal win a famous League Championship and FA Cup double - a stellar achievement in the days long before talk of trebles, let alone quintuples.

To cap it all, Wilson was voted Player of the Year by the Arsenal supporters in this their season of seasons. Little wonder he is still regarded as one of the all-time greats at the club.

A recent Arsenal poll voted Wilson number 39 in the list of Greatest Gunners. “That’s quite something when you think of all the players [who have played for the club]. For a boy out of Chesterfield - an amateur schoolteacher - that’s not bad!”

Wilson’s proudest achievement, however, is not winning the double or the personal accolades that followed, but winning the respect of colleagues and peers during his time at Arsenal. “My greatest achievement was that I played in a golden era, I think, for the game” he says, and who could disagree.

“You had George Best, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Billy Bremner, right across the board. And I don’t think any one of those guys in my era who eventually didn’t finish up saying ‘he can play’”.

Still incredibly grateful for the opportunities that Arsenal gave him, coaching was Wilson’s way of “giving something back” to the club. “Without Arsenal there would be no Bob Wilson. I would never ever have been given an opportunity by the BBC to become the first footballer to present all the major sports programmes if I hadn’t been the Arsenal goalie.”

Footballers are a common sight in the TV studio these days but, in the mid-70s, sport programmes were presented by trained journalists. The fact that Wilson did not fit this criterion led to “a lot of bitterness” but, when it came to talking about the game, “people would listen because I’d been there.”

Wilson soon became the face of Football Focus, whilst also working on a broad range of the BBC’s sporting output, including Match of the Day, Grandstand and Sportsnight. After “20 great years” at the Beeb, Wilson moved to ITV to become their chief football presenter. He hosted the station’s exclusive Champions League coverage - including Manchester United’s historic treble win in 1999 – and presented Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup where he presented the most popular football programme in British TV history, England’s bitter defeat to Argentina, watched by some 26.5 million viewers.

It was a long and successful career in the meda. However, despite distinguishing himself as a broadcaster as he had as a player, it was as a coach that Wilson felt most comfortable. “It sounds very dramatic this, but I think the best Bob Wilson is not Bob Wilson the Arsenal goalkeeper or television presenter – certainly not the last one – but Bob Wilson the coach or teacher.”

His experience as a teacher obviously stood him in good stead, as 28 years as a goalkeeping coach would testify. He set up Bob Wilson’s Goalkeeping School – the number one school of its sort in the country and, working both here and at Arsenal, coached some of the game’s top glovesmen, including Pat Jennings - “one of the great goalkeepers of all time” and David Seaman - “absolutely outstanding”.

His knowledge and experience of the game made people take notice but, “almost to the same degree, it was enthusiasm” that made him a good coach. After speaking to him for just a short space of time, I can fully believe this.

His enthusiasm when talking about the game is infectious and, although now 67 years of age, I suspect that Bob would still prefer to be out on the training pitch than sitting down with a cuppa talking to me.

“I’m not coaching any more, since the 2003 FA Cup final, but I love it when somebody asks me to do a session. I’ve got two artificial hips so I can’t do it in the manner that I used to – I was a very hands-on coach – that’s the way I was and that’s the way I still would be right now.”

I am curious as to what makes a goalkeeper - is there a certain type of person required? Whilst Wilson would never discourage anyone to play the position, he believes that “to have any real success” in the modern game, a keeper needs to have an imposing physique. “If you are six foot four upwards, you have a better chance than if you are six foot.”

A strong mentality is also important. “You can play for 89 minutes and have a perfect game then make one mistake and that is all that everybody remembers” he says. “And that’s the goalkeeping lot. Even the greatest goalies have had their moments. I worked with David Seaman for 15 years. Nine major trophies he won, seven runners-up medals, 75 England caps and an MBE and all people can talk about is Nayim and Ronaldinho! But he can take it right on the chin and laugh it off.”

“It’s so easy to fall off this tightrope that I talk about. You don’t have to be crazy - it might help a bit in certain situations - but you do have to be different. Goalkeeping is so individual. You have two games going on - the team game on one hand but also a complete personal battle. You have to be honest. It’s very easy because you’re on a winning side to just dismiss the fact that you possibly didn’t have a very good game. You can never kid yourself.”

So a strong physique and a tough mentality are both very important it seems but, as Wilson says: “The bottom line is that you have to put in the work. When I think of, as a schoolboy, the hours I spent smashing a ball against a wall or the garage door - bang, bang, bang until the neighbours must have gone beserk.”

Wilson’s solitary games against the wall would cover all the goalkeeping skills and ensure that he stopped the ball at every angle and trajectory possible - an indication of a future goalkeeping coach, if ever there was one.

One of Wilson’s favourite sayings throughout his coaching career is that “the ball is the enemy but you have to make it a friend.” A free lesson for those budding young goalkeepers out there - familiarity with the ball and how it moves will stand you in good stead. “In the end, the confidence I had came from dealing with the ball as much as I could. For me it came from literally hour after hour after hour up against a garage door.”

It is almost 60 years on from that scene I picture with the young Bob Wilson and the garage door, but his enthusiasm for the game remains undimmed. Generous with his time, we get to discuss a range of topics in the game from Arsene Wenger’s philosophy on the game and Ajax’s total football of the 1970s - “still the blueprint” - through to the negative sides of the modern game. “Are we ever going to improve cheating and diving?" he asks. "I just hate that."

Whatever the subject matter, Bob speaks about it with a passion that is still burning for “the simple game” that has always been central to his life. He remains extremely grateful for everything that the game has given him and now uses his high profile as the public face of the Willow Foundation.

The Willow Foundation is the charity Bob established in 1999 with his wife Megs in memory of their daughter Anna, who died the previous December just six days short of her 32nd birthday, after a five year battle with cancer. During this time, Anna found that “having something in her diary to look forward to, whether it were a Robbie Williams concert or the next Arsenal Cup Final” helped her cope with her illness.

The foundation now arranges ‘special days’ such as these for seriously ill young adults across the UK. Bob and Megs have seen Willow grow from “providing 17 special days out of a back-bedroom” to an organisation of some 39 employees who, in the last 12 months, provided over 1,400 special days.

Such a fantastic turnover has its costs though - Willow needs around £3.5m a year to provide their special days - and the current recession has hit them hard. “We are hitting such a difficult time,” Bob tells me. “It’s so scary that we’ve come so far and now face such a danger. And I’m not exaggerating - some charities are going under.”

It would be terrible shame if Willow were to suffer from the current financial climate as it is a unique organisation - the only one in the UK focussed on the 16-40 age group. The tone in Bob’s voice when we discuss the current climate is one of completely determination that the charity they have worked so hard to create will make it through the crisis.

It is Megs who has done all the work, according to Bob, who sees himself as “the public face of Willow”. In 2007, he received an OBE for his work with the charity - an award that he believes should have been awarded to his wife. “I turned it down initially, saying ‘No, this should be Megs,’ but everyone said ‘You’re mad. You’re accepting it on behalf of Willow.'”

© Chris George 24SE7EN magazine

“Hopefully somewhere people will realise what she created and that she might somewhere get some form of recognition. The Honours system is flawed, but it would have been lovely if it was the two of us and it would have been even better if it were just her.

"She could have been for that and I could have been for my contibution to football and goalkeeping. That would have done me!”

I don’t know if those members of Her Majesty’s Government responsible for the Honours nominations read The Club House but, if they do, I would like to state that the Wilsons most definitely get my vote.

With thanks to Bob and the Willow Foundation - www.willowfoundation.org.uk

Ten years of the WIllow Foundation

Founded by Bob and Meg Wilson in 1999, the Willow Foundation this year celebrates its tenth anniversary. The only UK charity focused on the 16-40 age group, Willow provides special days for seriously ill young adults to help provide much needed time out from the stresses of living with a life-threatening condition.

Registered Charity No. 1106746

Special days provide those receiving them a chance to feel normal and to create happy memories. The Willow Foundation helps young adults and their loved ones create an unforgettable day - a day of their choosing - and then take care of all the details and cover the costs. It's that simple.

If you are aged between 16 and 40 inclusive, fit the foundation's medical criteria and are resident in the UK, all you need to do is fill out a special day application form and start dreaming of your special day.

How can I get involved?

Visit www.willowfoundation.org.uk to find out anything you need to know about the Willow Foundation. The website contains information on everything from arranging special days to fundraising ideas - donations, sporting challenges, sponsorhip, volunteer work, corporate partnerships etc.

Take up a challenge - try 10 for 10!

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Willow Foundation are asking you to take up a challenge…or ten!  You could run 10 times round the block, swim 10 lengths, run 10 marathons, cycle 10 miles or so much more besides!

You could also come up with your own unique challenge or pick one or more from Willow's UK and overseas challenges. Whatever you choose to do, let the Willow Foundation know and they’ll send you a training plan, a sponsorship form and a Willow t-shirt. They'll support you all the way. See www.willowfoundation.org.uk for more info.

Bob Wilson OBE

Date of birth: 30 October 1941     Place of birth: Chesterfield

Height: 6' 1" / 1.85m     Position: Goalkeeper

Grassroots football: Chesterfield Grammar School, Chesterfield Boys, Derbyshire Grammar Schools, Derbyshire Boys, England Schoolboys

Professional career: Wolves FC Reserves; Arsenal FC: 1st Team - 308 appearances (0 goals), Reserves - 217 (0), Arsenal Total - 525 (0)

Professional honours: European Fairs Cup 1970, First Division Championship 1970/71, FA Cup 1970-71 (all Arsenal)

International caps: Scotland - 2 (0)