'Willo' happy to find time for the sick

THE former Arsenal goalie Bob Wilson thought that sitting a coach outside White Hart Lane and having things thrown at it was bad enough. Then he was told about the Muratti.

'Unbelieveable'.

'I was in in Guernsey about 10 years ago and talking about derby games and heard about the Muratti,' he said.

'I still can't believe the feelings are that strong.'

Told that they still are he shakes his head and laughs.

Bob was in Guernsey this week to play a round of golf and give an after-dinner speech in aid of his charity, the Willow Foundation.

'The Willow Foundation is a charity dedicated to improving the quality of life of seriously ill adults aged between 16 to 40 by organising and funding a 'special day' of their choice.

'The Royal Bank of Scotland International is sponsoring the Foundation. I'm delighted that they are and that I'm in Guernsey.'

I show him a newspaper cutting of himself taken in May 1971 when the Gunners won the First Division championship at White Hart Lane, the home of Arsenal's north London rivals.

He is jumping in the air.

'It must be at the final whistle as I didn't celebrate goals like that, especially if it was only one-nil, they could come back.'

He was voted best player in the double-winning team that included Graham, Rice, Armstrong and FA Cup Final match-winner Charlie George.

Bob played two more seasons with Arsenal and retired in 1973.

That ought to have been end of story - time to run a pub or garage which was the norm for retired pro footballers. But Bob was different, always was, as he happily recalls.

'I lived in Chesterfield in a strong Scottish family.

'I used to go to see Ron Springett (Sheffield Wednesday) play one week and Alan Hodgkinson (Sheffield United) the next.'

He was an England youth international alongside Nobby Stiles and Matt Busby offered him a contract at United.

'My dad told me that couldn't sign for United as a schoolboy I had to get a proper job.'

Bob went to Loughborough College and trained as a history and PE teacher and during his first year of teaching signed as an amateur for Wolves and later Arsenal.

'I had 12-and-a-half years with Arsenal but it was only really at the end that my career took off.'

He played 530 times for the Gunners in a career that began in 1961.

'Some people call me a legend but most of my time was with the reserves.'

He is a genuinely modest man and one much closer to the amateur era despite his 234 first team appearances and two Scotland caps.

After he quit the game he was goalkeeping coach at Highbury for 25 years and for all but two did it on an unpaid basis.

Almost reluctantly he admits to inventing the job of goalie coach which he did for a few days a week while he worked as a television presenter.

'I retired from television after the World Cup and wanted to retire from Arsenal the year before, but Arsene Wenger persuaded me to stay for an extra year.

'It wasn't on a full-time basis like him - he's an amazing guy. He never switches off from thinking about the game.

'I was doing three or four days a week unlike the eight that Arsene does.'

He left Arsenal as champions and they are again. But just how good are they?

'They've taken playing to a new, different level,' says Bob.

'Thierry is the best player and he's not defendable against. Henry is unplayable but Premierships are won by defences and Arsenal's is the best.

'When I was coaching we'd play tell them to place balls to the feet, but now they're doing it at real speed and giving the ball lots of wellie - the goals against Spurs last week showed that.'

Bob's day job, though, for most of the past 30 years was as a pundit on BBC and ITV.

He sounds a reluctant BBC man.

He enjoyed it but felt the Beeb thought he ought to be paying them although he was one of the leading presenters on BBC Sport, where he presented Grandstand, Sportsnight and Match of the Day between 1974 to 1994.

Bob went to ITV and presented what was probably the England match with the highest-ever single channel viewing figure: 26 million against Argentina in 1998.

He then moved back to the Beeb.

'I used to go and coach goalkeepers at different clubs because I didn't want to be accused of being biased for Arsenal.'

But it is the Gunners and his charity that the conversation keeps returning to.

His opposite number at White Hart Lane in 1971 was Pat Jennings: ironically Bob was his coach when the Irishman moved to Arsenal.

'We were completely different.

'I suppose I was mad, more head on. I'd dive at forward's feet, suicidal.

'He was the first goalie to make deliberate saves with his legs.'

Fittingly Bob's goalie hero was Manchester City's 1950's star Bert Trautmann, who gained a cup winner's medal playing on with a broken neck.

'It might have happened to me.'

When he played Bob, at 6ft 1in., was one of the tallest keepers - only Jennings and Joe Corrigan were larger.

'The size of goalies has increased - Schmeichel, David Seaman are 6ft 4in.

'A good big one should be better than a good little one, but Shay Given's little and not bad and neither was Barthez for France.'

And goalies are supposed to have big hands.

'Pat had big hands - he could hold the ball with one hand but he was a gifted goalkeeper with his own style. Mine was different.'

Although he's officially retired he works for the Willow Foundation.

'It gives special days to young people with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions.

The days are a chance to escape the difficulties of their daily routine and could be a trip to a health farm or a visit to a pop concert or an afternoon of Premiership football.'

Bob's aim is to to be able to arrange a special day of their choice for every seriously ill young adult in the UK.

His nickname at Arsenal was Willo and the charity was founded after the death of his daughter Anna, aged 31, after a long fight against cancer.

Bob and his wife Megs set up the charity to help others placed in similar situations.