Jimmy Greaves has left us.

Rest in peace Jimmy.
As a kid ,I saw the tale end of his career on TV .
Saint and Greavies was superb.
Saw him live at , think it was Evesham.Him and Ron Harris .Great night
 
382 goals in 579 appearances, thats just ridiculousl;y good, especially in the days of defenders being allowed to brutalise forwards.
 
Fantastic all around player and goalscorer supreme. Arguably the very best scorer of that generation of UK players. And there were some incredible players then.
 
I think he was the greatest striker I ever saw. His pace was electrifying and he also had superb dribbling skills. His goal scoring records are of course legendary, particularly at international level.
A very sad day for the English game.
 
What a player. Turned out an excellent TV guy too. Two of my favourite football pics are of Greavsie; him in the bath looking forlorn with an injured leg resting on a fold-up chair. Also, Greaves in the background as Hurst scores the winning goal in 66, everyone around him is celebrating, Jimmy's again looking forlorn.
 
Even the old grainy black and white footage of his goals show what an incredible footballer he was.
I have a vague memory of him liking big Ted McMinn who slagged off Jimmy's choice of shirts on TV,Jimmy then presented big Ted with one of his shirts after a game at Hampden.
RIP Greavsie.
 
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Goodbye to one of the real greats.
In his time he was amazing, and a goalscorer extraordinaire.
Add to this that he had a lovely sense of humour and was a fine pundit in his retirement after playing, and clearly, he leaves us with a wealth of memories of a fantastic career.
RIP Jimmy.
 
Saturday mornings at football training, then home for lunch and watching Saint & Greavsie, happy days.

RIP Jimmy Greaves.
 
What a player.

Injury cost him a place in England's World Cup winning team in 1966, and I always remember him at the side of the pitch at the final whistle, looking on in his suit. If ever I've seen a man with conflicting emotions it was Jimmy Greaves that day.

I remember one time he waxed lyrical about the Rangers fans on his show. It was when we played the great Spurs side in the ECWC in 62-63. He said that they came out the tunnel at White Hart Lane and the stadium was packed with Rangers fans making a hell of a din, all convinced they were going to win. We lost 5-2.

RIP Jimmy Greaves.

Thanks for the memories on and off the park.

 
I haven’t seen that particular interview before, but that was always Jimmy’s version of events. Comes across as very honest.

Considering his unparalleled goalscoring records, it sometimes seems like he didn’t win much silverware in his career, but…

• he won the FA Cup twice, with Spurs, at a time (1962, at least) when the cup was regarded as more important than the league
• he won the Charity Shield twice with Spurs
• although he only played 12 league games for AC Milan (and scored 9 goals), he was part of the squad than won Serie A that season
• he was part of the Spurs team that became the first British side to win a European trophy, the 1963 ECWC, scoring twice in the final
• he was part of the 1966 England World Cup winning squad, playing in 3 out of 6 matches, and contributing to that success

Actually playing in the World Cup Final would have been the pinnacle of his career. No subs in those days, or he almost certainly would have played. And that would have been the icing on the cake of an incredible career.
 
GREAVSIE’S SUSPICIOUS MIND
Jimmy Greaves had to wait 43 years to be given a World Cup winner’s medal despite playing in England’s first three matches in 1966. In 2014, he finally got his hands on the trophy, albeit not the original, which was stolen in 1983. It was at an event at Wembley where the man from Fifa explained that only those who had won the cup could touch it with their bare hands; everyone else had to use gloves. As Gordon Banks and Geoff Hurst reached for it, Greaves smelt a rat. “Hang on, lads,” he told them. “That means if it gets nicked again, there are only our bloody fingerprints on it.”
 
Giles Coren - The Times Notebook

Height of fame
I was explaining to my football-crazy eight-year-old why the life and career of Jimmy Greaves touched us clomping park footballers in ways that those of the noble but rather dull men who won the World Cup Final in 1966 never quite have.

“It’s because he was brilliant and clever and incredibly funny but had such a sad face,” I intoned pompously, as Sam scoffed his boiled egg, hunched over Greaves’s obituary in The Times. “We identified with him because he drank too much and kicked the habit, because he faced down his demons and made something new of himself, because he understood the nature of true love and, most importantly, because we Sunday morning hoofers didn’t win the World Cup either.”

“No, Dad,” said Sam, looking up from the paper, leaving his finger on the page to mark his place. “You identified with him because he was five foot seven.”
 
Apologies of already mentioned.

Gary Neville mentions a stat on his podcast (18 minutes) that Greaves is the third highest goalscorer in the top 5 leagues (after Messi and Ronaldo). I would never have thought this. I had a look at Muller's record, as I thought he scored more, but he didn't. Incredible record.

 
RIP Jimmy , an absolute legend , both him and saint on a Saturday morning was absolutely brilliant tv . Nothing since has come remotely close
 
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