Jimmy Greaves

[Silkyskills1]

BT Sport2 at 10 30 tonight. 90 mlns. prog on arguably the greatest goalscorer ever. I can understand that being opposed but in the end it's just an opinion. A very poorly man now but in his prime both frightened me and thrilled me. Hope it's a good watch and does him justice.

[Quicknick]

Wille Irvine wasn't far behind, and if he hadn't been so badly injured at Goodison that night, he may have been regarded as better.

[beddie]

Can I add George Best to that list. Three fantastic players now mentioned.

[FCBurnley]

What about Vydra

[crofty]

With all due respect to the above posters (and indeed to Willie Irvine and George Best) one look at Greaves' record shows he is in a different league (no pun).
He is/was arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time.
His goalscoring record is simply astonishing.

[Croydon Claret]

His goal scoring record makes you look twice to convince yourself that you read it correctly e.g. 1960/61 - 41 goals in 40 appearances

[bobinho]

My Dad said if he had played for us, we would've been unbeatable.

[Tricky Trevor]

Great goalscorer no doubt. Smoked, drank, hated training just loved scoring.

My Da got wound up by his auto?biography. He stated that the difference between Spurs and Burnley was the reserves and their quality. At the time we were winning back to back Central League titles with players who became household names. Spurs went backwards faster than us.

[Funkydrummer]

Here he is putting a few away.

Goals, not drinks !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W2fp5eVjtQ

[Royboyclaret]

His goal scoring record makes you look twice to convince yourself that you read it correctly e.g. 1960/61 - 41 goals in 40 appearances

Our own Willie Irvine was 37 goals from 49 appearances in 1965/66.

So not exactly that far behind the great man.

[Silkyskills1]

With all due respect to the above posters (and indeed to Willie Irvine and George Best) one look at Greaves' record shows he is in a different league (no pun).
He is/was arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time.
His goalscoring record is simply astonishing.

Totally agree. His goal scoring as a junior with Chelsea was like something from a boy's comic of the time. I've said before that one can only imagine how good he might have been had he looked after himself better. Then again, that wouldn't have been the real Jimmy Greaves.

[Herts Clarets]

Brian Clough 251 goals in 274 appearances must be right up there with the names mentioned above.

[Untinted Glasses]

Imagine what his record would have been should he have had some one of the quality of Jeff Hendrick sat just behind him. Scary

[Jakubs Tash]

Our own Willie Irvine was 37 goals from 49 appearances in 1965/66.

So not exactly that far behind the great man.

I'm too young to have watched either of them but just the maths of goals v appearances in that season say Irvine was more than 25% behind Greaves. That's pretty significant.

[Dazzler]

Brian Clough 251 goals in 274 appearances must be right up there with the names mentioned above.

Only 3 of those goals were scored in the top flight

[Sarum]

Jimmy Greaves played in the first Burnley match I ever saw. He didn't score, but our Andy Lochead did, in a 1-nil win at WHL. To a 9 year old's mind that proved our Andy was by far the better of the two. However, in hindsight....

[dougcollins]

The coolest man ever in the penalty area. I'm convinced the rest of the world moved in slow motion to Jimmy when he had the ball at his feet.

[Colburn_Claret]

His goal scoring record makes you look twice to convince yourself that you read it correctly e.g. 1960/61 - 41 goals in 40 appearances

I don't disagree about the brilliance of Greaves, but in an era when scorelines of 6-2, 4-4, 5-3 were common it would be expected that strikers of that era would have more numbers to their name. What I would point out, is that he did it in an era when players of talent had lumps kicked out of them. I don't believe most modern strikers would last 90 mins.

[ecc]

George Best wasn't a centre-forward. Not sure you can compare them.

[ClaretTony]

Wille Irvine wasn't far behind, and if he hadn't been so badly injured at Goodison that night, he may have been regarded as better.

I was a massive Irvine fan but Greaves was at another level. Unbelievable goalscorer.

[ClaretTony]

Brian Clough 251 goals in 274 appearances must be right up there with the names mentioned above.

Mostly in the second division though. Can’t recall ever having seen Clough play.

[Foulthrow]

Hasn’t Greaves scored against us more than any other individual player? Or is that a stat I dreamt?

[ClaretTony]

Hasn’t Greaves scored against us more than any other individual player? Or is that a stat I dreamt?

I don’t know whether he is or not but he scored a lot of goals against us.

[Claret Toni]

Commonly held view that England had 4 world class players when they won the world cup:
Banks, Moore, Charlton & Greaves. Greaves was that good.
Greaves missed out on the latter stages because he had been injured and Ramsey stayed loyal to the players wearing the shirt.

The others players mentioned in the thread just weren't nearly as good (Best was magnificent, at times, but not the goal scorer Jimmy Greaves was).

[Bin Ont Turf]

The others players mentioned in the thread just weren't nearly as good (Best was magnificent, at times, but not the goal scorer Jimmy Greaves was).

A nonsense of a comparison.

[Claret Toni]

A view formed from watching them at the time.

Not saying the others weren't good, they clearly were, Just Greaves was that much better.

The hesitation I had was about Best, but as a goal scorer even he wasn't in Greaves' class.

Appreciate you take a different stance.

[ralphdpomeroy]

Great goalscorer no doubt. Smoked, drank, hated training just loved scoring.

My Da got wound up by his auto?biography. He stated that the difference between Spurs and Burnley was the reserves and their quality. At the time we were winning back to back Central League titles with players who became household names. Spurs went backwards faster than us.

No they really didn't

1960-61 FL-1 42 31 4 7 115 55 66 1/22
1961-62 FL-1 42 21 10 11 88 69 52 3/22
1962-63 FL-1 42 23 9 10 111 62 55 2/22
1963-64 FL-1 42 22 7 13 97 81 51 4/22
1964-65 FL-1 42 19 7 16 87 71 45 6/22
1965-66 FL-1 42 16 12 14 75 66 44 8/22
1966-67 FL-1 42 24 8 10 71 48 56 3/22
1967-68 FL-1 42 19 9 14 70 59 47 7/22
1968-69 FL-1 42 14 17 11 61 51 45 6/22
1969-70 FL-1 42 17 9 16 54 55 43 11/22
1970-71 FL-1 42 19 14 9 54 33 52 3/22 erm we were relegated it took them a further 7 years

they were also

1960-61 F.A. Cup Winners (3rd time)
1961-62 F.A> Cup Winners (4th time)
1962-63 European Cup Winners Cup Winners
1966-67 F.A. Cup Winners (5th time)
1970-71 Football league Cup Winners

and their RESERVES won the Football Combination SIX times between 1960 and 1971





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[Clarets4me]

Only 3 of those goals were scored in the top flight

" Careful, young man !! If I hadn't done my cruciate at Bury in 1962, Jimmy Greaves would've been a footnote in the history books " .....

[Herts Clarets]

Mostly in the second division though. Can’t recall ever having seen Clough play.

I am aware of the level his goals came at but love him or hate him, that is some record. Nearly a goal every game for the equivalent of 6 full seasons. They are all before my time so I have the odd grainy black and white clip plus stats to see how good all these players were. Phenomenal goalscorers to a man.

[tim_noone]

He might have scored one?at turf moor 67/68 But we scored 5!!

[Bin Ont Turf]

A view formed from watching them at the time.

Not saying the others weren't good, they clearly were, Just Greaves was that much better.

The hesitation I had was about Best, but as a goal scorer even he wasn't in Greaves' class.

Appreciate you take a different stance.

Best wasn't a centre forward.

That's the nonsense comparison.

[ClaretTony]

I am aware of the level his goals came at but love him or hate him, that is some record. Nearly a goal every game for the equivalent of 6 full seasons. They are all before my time so I have the odd grainy black and white clip plus stats to see how good all these players were. Phenomenal goalscorers to a man.

Clearly a fantastic record but incomparable with players who did it regularly at the top level. My dad said Clough’s one weakness was his lack of pace. But clearly fantastic at the level he played.

[exilecanada]

If memory serves, wasn't Greaves known as a 'baby liner' back in the day? From that video, he was much more than that!

[Wile E Coyote]

there is a piece in his autobiography where he describes seeing the town (Burnley) as the spurs coach came in towards Manchester road. No matter what era, greaves was an outstanding goalscorer.

[ClaretTony]

Jimmy Greaves first scored against us in a 6-1 defeat at Chelsea in September 1957. I think his first goals on the Turf were the two he got in the 4-4 draw in April 1961.

[Clarets4me]

there is a piece in his autobiography where he describes seeing the town (Burnley) as the spurs coach came in towards Manchester road. No matter what era, greaves was an outstanding goalscorer.

" We used to get the train to Manchester, and then a Coach would take us to Burnley. You'd come down a steep hill, and suddenly. the town of Burnley would emerge out of the smoke and mist, like Brigadoon ! "

[IanMcL]

He held Burnley high in his best matches to play, at that time.


Prog was a good watch.

[Clarets4me]

The programme was excellent ... some really good documentaries on sport available on You-tube.
There's a great one on the Llanelli side that beat the 1972 All Blacks, and BBC Alba did a superb one about Jimmy Johnstone

[tim_noone]

The programme was excellent ... some really good documentaries on sport available on You-tube.
There's a great one on the Llanelli side that beat the 1972 All Blacks, and BBC Alba did a superb one about Jimmy Johnstone

JJ a great blues singer.

[Buxtonclaret]

The coolest man ever in the penalty area. I'm convinced the rest of the world moved in slow motion to Jimmy when he had the ball at his feet.

That's an attribute that the true greats, like Greaves, always seem to have, more time than lesser players.

[Silkyskills1]

Jimmy Greaves first scored against us in a 6-1 defeat at Chelsea in September 1957. I think his first goals on the Turf were the two he got in the 4-4 draw in April 1961.

And I think one of those two goals he scored against us for Chelsea in the 4-4 draw was shown last night. Think it was Steve Perryman on the prog. last night who said he just 'glided' along the pitch and that's how I remember him. No over-celebration when he scored but an assured arrogance of someone who knew he was good at what he did. His words to Spurs manager,Bill Nicholson, after a training session rang so true; 'Bill, you can either play or you can't'. And he certainly could. 114 goals for the youth team the season prior to him making his first team debut.

[Sausage]

I'm not old enough to have seen him play, but if you watch the Saint & Greavsie footage (see link) of the build up to the Orient Game, Jimmy Greaves is genuinely gutted at Burnley's plight and is rather sombre in his mood. It's clear he has a lot of respect for Burnley. I'm sorry to see his health has deteriorated so badly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieWObXpjhyQ

[ClaretTony]

Saint & Greavsie did a piece in Dec 1990 when we played Stoke in the FA Cup. I've not been able to find it on youtube but Greaves spoke very fondly of us that day, reminiscing of when he used to play against us.

I had the privilege of meeting him when we organised a dinner in 1986 and he and Saint were the guest speakers. Was talking to him before the dinner and he suddenly said he needed to go and see someone he knew who had just walked in. That someone was Jimmy Mac and Greaves dashed across the room and threw his arms round him. When he came back, he told us that Jimmy Mac was the finest player he ever played with or against.

Greaves came across that night just as he did on the TV programme, brilliant bloke.

[quoonbeatz]

Saint & Greavsie did a piece in Dec 1990 when we played Stoke in the FA Cup. I've not been able to find it on youtube but Greaves spoke very fondly of us that day, reminiscing of when he used to play against us.

I always remember that for him saying when they came down over the hill and down Manchester Road, the town rose from the mist like Brigadoon.

I had no idea what Brigadoon was but I liked it.

Edit: already been mentioned I see, didn't read the thread.

[Silkyskills1]

Jimmy Mc and Jimmy Greaves in the same room,CT.? You were very privileged indeed.

[winsomeyen]

George Best wasn't a centre-forward. Not sure you can compare them.

Neither was Jimmy Greaves,he played inside left (number ten ) the centre forward in the succesfull Spurs team was Bobby Smith.

[JohnMac]

Very good watch I thought and a fitting tribute to a goal scoring machine.

His honesty in football summaries, bravery in facing his demon (and keeping it at bay), empathy in helping others to address their own problem, humbleness and fantastic sense of humour mark him out as a special person.

I hope the campaign to have him formally recognised as a sporting legend succeeds.

[Lord Beamish]

They used to have his likeness hanging outside the General Bill on Manchester Rd.

[mkmel]

I spoke to Jimmy Greaves a few years ago now at a book signing here in Milton Keynes

I simply asked him if I could shake the hand of our greatest ever goal scorer and he of course obliged

[Claret Toni]

Best wasn't a centre forward.

That's the nonsense comparison.

Never commented that Best was. Merely stated that although a magnificent footballer he was not in the same league as Greaves, as a goal scorer - but few were.