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When Harry Redknapp returned to England in 1979 after four years playing and coaching in America, he went along to Upton Park to watch his old club West Ham. They were in the Second Division at the time, struggling through a fairly ordinary season, and there weren’t many supporters there that afternoon. Redknapp was sitting in E block, where the players’ families and guests usually watched the games. It was also where Bobby Moore liked to sit whenever he came back to watch West Ham. Moore had been away from the club for several years by then, but he still enjoyed going along to Upton Park. Rather than arriving before kick-off and having everyone stop him, he would wait until the game had started and knock on one of the old wooden turnstile doors. The bloke on the gate would recognise him straight away. “Come in, Bob, there’s plenty of seats upstairs.” Moore would make his way up to E block, find a quiet corner on the old wooden benches and sit there watching the game on his own. That afternoon was no different. The match had been going for about fifteen minutes when Redknapp heard somebody behind him. “Harry.” He turned around and there was Bobby Moore. Redknapp asked him: “Fancy a cup of tea at half-time?” Moore gave him the thumbs-up and Harry went back to watching the game. A few moments later, he noticed a steward heading up the steps towards Moore. The steward looked almost embarrassed as he approached him. “Excuse me, Bob.” “It’s not me, but the secretary wants to know if you’ve got a ticket.” Moore told him he hadn’t. “Then I’m afraid I’ve been told to ask you to leave.” And Bobby Moore got up and walked out. The man who had captained West Ham to the FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup, and England to the World Cup, had been asked to leave a half-empty stand at Upton Park because he didn’t have a ticket. Redknapp never forgot it. By the early 1990s, Moore was travelling around the country doing radio commentary for Capital Radio. Redknapp remembered seeing him one freezing night at Grimsby, sitting at the back of the stand eating fish and chips with a big hat on. He was earning £100 for the commentary. “All right, Bob?” “All right, H, yeah.” Redknapp couldn’t understand why West Ham had never found a proper role for him at the club. He raised it with the directors, but nothing ever came of it. In February 1993, Moore sadly passed away from cancer at just 51 years old. That same week, West Ham chairman Terry Brown began talking about naming a stand after him. By then Redknapp was back at West Ham as assistant manager, and he was furious. “When he was alive, you didn’t even give him a ticket, now you want to name a f****** stand after him?” “He should have been sitting next to you every game.” “He should have been the figurehead of this f****** club.” “He would have been the best ambassador any club could ever have.” Redknapp and Brown had a huge argument over it, and Harry never changed his mind. West Ham eventually named the old South Bank after Moore and put up statues and pictures celebrating their greatest captain. But Redknapp could never forget that afternoon in 1979, when Bobby Moore had been told to leave Upton Park because he didn’t have a ticket. #football