Jimmy Greaves RIP

Jimmy Greaves RIP

My teenage years were spent watching Saint & Greavsie every Saturday lunchtime. Was a wonderful show.

One hears what a superb English striker he was but I didn’t realise until yesterday that only Messi and Ronaldo have scored more goals in the top 5 European leagues than Jimmy Greaves. That is some record especially considering the pitches he must have played in.

RIP.
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Great player & goal scorer, assume he never notched one at GP?
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Indian Bee said:
My teenage years were spent watching Saint & Greavsie every Saturday lunchtime. Was a wonderful show.

One hears what a superb English striker he was but I didn’t realise until yesterday that only Messi and Ronaldo have scored more goals in the top 5 European leagues than Jimmy Greaves. That is some record especially considering the pitches he must have played in.

RIP.
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Especially when you consider how early he retired. Goals to game ratio is phenomenal. If he's played 80-100 times for England no-one would ever have beaten his as leading goal scorer.

Listened to Alan Mullery this morning who asked what he would cost in today's market with that scoring record. Reply - at least £200m, which I thought was about right when considering Harry Kane's value. I agree about playing surfaces - you wonder how many more he'd get on super flat pitches and defenders that aren't allowed to 'tackle' as they used to.

Loved Saint & Greavsie. Knowledgeable football pundits who never took themselves too seriously and remembered football was about entertainment. I always used to laugh as they'd have highlights of some Friday night, dour division 4 game (it was often Barnet) and Jimmy would always make some comment, in a nice way, about the limited skill level on show!
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Hippobee said:
Especially when you consider how early he retired. Goals to game ratio is phenomenal. If he's played 80-100 times for England no-one would ever have beaten his as leading goal scorer.

Listened to Alan Mullery this morning who asked what he would cost in today's market with that scoring record. Reply - at least £200m, which I thought was about right when considering Harry Kane's value. I agree about playing surfaces - you wonder how many more he'd get on super flat pitches and defenders that aren't allowed to 'tackle' as they used to.

Loved Saint & Greavsie. Knowledgeable football pundits who never took themselves too seriously and remembered football was about entertainment. I always used to laugh as they'd have highlights of some Friday night, dour division 4 game (it was often Barnet) and Jimmy would always make some comment, in a nice way, about the limited skill level on show!
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Stockport were the main Friday night stars weren't they?
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Indian Bee said:
One hears what a superb English striker he was but I didn’t realise until yesterday that only Messi and Ronaldo have scored more goals in the top 5 European leagues than Jimmy Greaves. That is some record especially considering the pitches he must have played in.
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... and the brutal defenders, plus the fact that he never played for absolutely tip top sides like the other two and was effectively finished by illness (glandular fever) and the drink by the time he was 30.

What is especially astonishing is just how prolific he was when still only young. By the season in which he turned 21, he had already scored 124 goals in 157 First Division games* for (mid-table) Chelsea.

By contrast, Ronaldo scored 21 in 120 league games in his equivalent seasons/age (though tbf he was a winger back then)

For Messi, the equivalent was 53 goals in 102 games.

While Alan Shearer scored 20 goals in 103 league games up, to and including the season when he turned 21.



* - In his first season as a 17 y.o., Greaves (b.1940) scored 22 in 35 league games; then 32 in 42 next season; 29 in 40 next; and 41 in 40 games in 1960/61.
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Hippobee said:
Especially when you consider how early he retired. Goals to game ratio is phenomenal. If he's played 80-100 times for England no-one would ever have beaten his as leading goal scorer.

Listened to Alan Mullery this morning who asked what he would cost in today's market with that scoring record. Reply - at least £200m, which I thought was about right when considering Harry Kane's value. I agree about playing surfaces - you wonder how many more he'd get on super flat pitches and defenders that aren't allowed to 'tackle' as they used to.

Loved Saint & Greavsie. Knowledgeable football pundits who never took themselves too seriously and remembered football was about entertainment. I always used to laugh as they'd have highlights of some Friday night, dour division 4 game (it was often Barnet) and Jimmy would always make some comment, in a nice way, about the limited skill level on show!
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He light-hearted remarked once to Ian St.John, when talking about Scottish goalkeeper errors, that Hampden Park was akin to becoming like ‘ a graveyard for Scottish goalkeepers!’
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

Only saw him play once when he scored in what, I think, was his last international against Spain in 67. A class act. RIP
 

Jimmy Greaves RIP

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