Jimmy Greaves: 20 February, 1940 - 21 September, 2021
THE NEWS of Jimmy Greaves' passing cast something of a damper on Sunday. At a time when average players, capable of passing accurately to a team mate five yards away, are worth ludicrous sums of money on an over-inflated transfer market, it does the game good to be reminded of genuine class on the park.
The fact the BBC saw fit to lead the Sunday evening national news with the news of Jimmy's passing demonstrates the affection with which he was held in the country, and, in this case I mean the United Kingdom, not just England – although he was very-much an English sporting hero.
Greavsie was also someone who was warmly received when he ventured north, mainly with Tottenham Hotspur – Scottish football fans have always recognised and acknowledged class. He only actually played once at Hampden for the full England team. He was in the side destroyed 2-0 in 1962.
Tottenham apparently had first dibs on young talent in Manor Park, Essex, the part of Greater London where Jimmy grew-up, but, they missed him and he signed instead for Chelsea, where he was one of “Ted Drake's Ducklings,” a squad of talented youngsters put together by the manager to succeed the ageing squad who had delivered the first league title to Stamford Bridge in 1955.
The “Ducklings” were soon swimming in the deep waters of the first team – Peter Bonetti, Ron Harris, Terry Venables, Peter Brabrook, Barry Bridges and Bobby Tambling all went on to have significant careers, however, from the moment he announced himself with a debut goal, against Spurs, in August, 1957, it was obvious – here was a natural goal scorer.
He left Chelsea at the end of the 1960-61 season, having scored 132 goals in 169 appearances, signing-off with all four goals in a 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest. That took his tally for the season to 41 goals in 40 games.
His next stop was AC Milan, but, even before he landed in Italy, Greaves had realised he had made a mistake leaving London. AC paid £80,000 for his signature, he got a signing-on fee of £15,000 and was to be paid £140 per week – massive money for those times.
He again scored on his debut, but he was miserable throughout his time in Italy, where he didn't get on with the coach and objected to the control his club insisted on having over his life. But, he did score 9 goals in 14 games, an excellent return in those days of stifling Italian defences.
Bill Nicholson saw-off Chelsea's attempts to buy him back, Spurs finally had their man, at a cost of £99,999. The canny Nicholson knocked £1 off the price, so Greaves would not be burdened with the tag of being football's first £100,000 player.
His obligatory debut goal was part of a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Blackpool, of which his flying scissors kick for one of the goals is a highly-celebrated strike. He had joined the team which had secured English football's first league and cup double the previous season, but, the league title was to elude him. He did help Spurs win the FA Cup, then become the first British team to win a European Trophy, when they won the Cup-Winners Cup, thrashing Rangers en route.
He remained with Spurs throughout the 1970s, forming a particularly-deadly scoring partnership with Alan Gilzean on his way to notching a club record 268 goals.
His next stop in a tour of London clubs was West Ham United, whom he joined as the make-weight in the deal which took Martin Peters in the opposite direction. The Hammers, however, were a club in decline> Peters had, gone, Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst were in decline and their replacements were not of the same calibre.
Greaves was unhappy, drinking too much, unfit and on the downward slope to alcoholism. He only scored 13 goals in 40games for West Ham – way below his normal return. He was only 31 when his top-flight career ended in May, 1971. However, in all, between his three London clubs and AC| Milan, he scored 366 goals in the top flight, a record which stood until surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017.
He tried to continue playing in non-league football, but, he was in the throes of alcoholism, a battle he finally won in 1979. He remained sober for the rest of his life.
Internationally, he scored 13 goals in 12 appearances for the England Under-23 side before making his England debut, in Peru, during a close season tour in 1959. He, needless to say, scored on his debut and would go on to eclipse the then England goal-scoring record and go on to score 44 times in 57 internationals. This tally included six hat-tricks, one against Scotland in the 9-3 thrashing in 1961 – when he had a fourth goal chalked off for offside.
His England career lasted until May, 1967, however, after injury saw him replaced by Geoff Hurst for the knock-out stages of the 1966 tournament, and he was, although fit, not restored to the team for the final, Jimmy somewhat fell out of love with playing for England, finally asking Alf Ramsey not to pick him as: “a bit-part player.”
What a goalscorer:
44 in 57 games for England – 0.77 goals per game
13 in 12 games for England Under-23s – 1.08 gpg
2 in 2 games for the London XI – 1 gpg
132 in 169 games for Chelsea – 0.78 gpg
9 in 14 games for AC Milan - 0.64 gpg
268 in 381 games for Tottenham – 0.70 gpg
13 in 40 games for West Ham United – 0.325 gpg
Including his later spell in non-league football, he played a total of 777 games, scoring 526 goals, an average of 0.68 goals per game. The benchmark for a top-class finisher is supposedly 0.5 goals per game. Given, in the latter stages of his career, he played more in midfield, that figure shows what a great finisher Greaves was. His top-flight figures are remarkable: 479 goals in 673 games, an average of 0.71 goals per game.
He was one of the ultimate penalty-box predators in his later years, but, at the start of his career he scored some remarkable goals by using his blistering pace to run at defences from distance.
After football he became one of the first footballers to have a media career. He drove a Ford Escort in the World Cup Rally of 1970, finishing sixth; then appeared on the punditry panel. He wrote columns for the Sun and the Sunday People and for football magazines, as well as writing several football books, including a well-received autobiography, often in conjunction with his life-long friend Normal Gillier..
His best-known media career was as one half of “Saint and Greavsie,” with former Scotland cap Ian St John. Their long-running partnership was must-watch pre-match viewing on a Saturday.
He married Irene Barden in 1958. They had five children, losing their eldest, Jimmy Junior, as a toddler. Irene sued for divorce at the height of Jimmy's alcoholism, but, the separation was never formalised and, after three months, they reunited and remained together untilo his death.
Along with the other squad members who had not played in the 1966 World Cup Final, Jimmy received a winner's medal in 2009. He was made MBE in the 2021 New Year's Honours for his services to football. By then, however, following ill-health and a major stroke in May, 2015, he was reduced to relying on a wheel chair to get about.
Jimmy Greaves was a character, he had a ready wit and pithy sense of humour. After football, Alan Gilzean worked for a haulage company, with whom he re-located to Weston-Super-Mare. There were lurid tales of him having hit hard times and when he was eventually persuaded to return to White Hart Lane for a Spurs game, he was greeted with: “Where the Hell have you been hiding?” by Greaves. “Keeping out of your way,” was Gillie's response.
He was one of the few members of the 1966 England team that most Scots would gladly have taken as one of our own. Imagine a front two of Greaves and Denis Law? Indeed, one of the legends around Scotland's 1967 Wembley win is that: “They strengthened their World Cup-winning team to play us.” Greaves for Roger Hunt was the only change to the 1966 immortals for the Scotland game.
Jimmy Graves – some player. Rest in Peace Wee Man.
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