Greavsie the autobiography of martin
Greavsie: The Autobiography
November 26, 2023
I have watched (and played) plenty of football during my life but there is no doubt whatsoever that Jimmy Greaves was the greatest, and coolest, goalscorer that I have ever seen. He was mercurial around the penalty box and once there, it was more often than not certainly a goal. He scored 357 goals in 516 Football League matches, all in the top flight of English football. In 57 appearances for England he scored 44 goals and he scored 55 goals in various Cup competitions. Incredible and it was an absolute delight to watch him, as I did often in my time in London.
I was aware of his burgeoning reputation when I first saw him at Blackpool on 12 December 1959 when I was an impressionable young lad of 13. Blackpool beat Chelsea 3-1 and the Blackpool defence kept a tight rein on him so he did not score his side's consolation goal. I went home and said to my Dad, 'Jimmy Greaves isn't as great as I thought, our defence kept him quiet.' I must confess to a slight disappointment because he was already one of my footballing heroes. A week or so later he was playing at nearby Preston and, with Blackpool away from home, I travelled to watch the game. This time on my return home I said to my Dad, 'I withdraw everything I said about Jimmy Greaves, he is magnificent.' The reason was that, although Preston - through Tommy Thompson who scored all their goals - netted four times, Jimmy scored five and he had three other efforts disallowed! His reputation for me was secured.
By the time I went to London Jimmy had left Chelsea, much to the chagrin of their supporters, had had a very brief spell at AC Milan and had returned to Tottenham Hotspur. I was, therefore, able to watch him on numerous occasions and in one classic spell of just over a month I saw him score five for England, three for Tottenham and then both goals in Spurs' 2-1 victory over Stoke City, for whom another of my heroes and later great friend, Stan Matthews, was playing - and still looking good -at the age of 50.
He continued such form for the rest of his career although when he moved to West Ham United towards the end he was not quite as prolific as in his earlier days. He had left Chelsea for he had seen that the way ahead for the club was not necessarily one that he wanted to be involved in. His move to AC Milan was done somewhat begrudgingly and it proved something of a disaster, although he did score nine goals in not so very many games. But he did not fit in and did not like the regime at the club.
Fortunately he managed to persuade AC Milan that he wanted to return to England and Spurs' manager Bill Nicholson outbid his former club Chelsea for his signature. Nicholson negotiated a £99,999 transfer fee for, as he said at the time, he didn't want Jimmy saddled with the tag of the first £100,000 player. By that time the maximum wage had been abolished in English football and - not by any means by today's exorbitant standards - he was paid a fair wage for his services.
He blossomed with England but injury in the final group match of the 1966 World Cup put him out of the team so he missed out on a World Cup Final place. But, like the consummate professional that he was, he supported his team-mates from the sidelines and enjoyed their success just as much (well, nearly as much!) as they did. His move to West Ham came when Nicholson decided that Spurs wanted to rebuild for the future and with his new club Jimmy kept up his brilliant record of having scored in the first game he played for every senior team he joined.
But by then his goalscoring powers were waning and he knew the end was nigh. In addition he had begun a drinking culture that was to subsequently drag him into alcoholism. He tells the story of that awful time quite dispassionately and it is such a sad tale for his wife Irene and he were inseparable; it was heartbreaking when they both agreed that a divorce was the only answer as Jimmy adored Irene and their four children.
At the time he had become a successful businessman but that all went wrong, too, and, living on his own in a flat, he was distraught. He continued to play some minor football but even that ended prematurely. This part of the autobiography is particularly heart-wrenching and one feels for both he, Irene and the children.
He was always quite a character on and off the field and radio and television realised this and got him involved in various programmes that brought out his cheeky sense of humour. 'Saint and Greavsie' was the most popular but even that ended in tears when the TV company involved just didn't make contact after the end of what was the to be the final series. But by then Jimmy had seen enough of life to be pretty sanguine about it.
He comments on the differences in the game from when he started to today and his comments are amusing but so accurate. I particularly liked the one when he was delineating all the changes for the worse that have taken place in the game and everything associated with it as his point has always been one of my bugbears. He says that a football programme in his day had the teams lined up so that the supporter knew exactly how the two sides were to take the field - even with the Tannoy announcements about team changes - but today the programme, that he likens to a ladies' magazine rather than four pages of essentials for the football fan, has the club's whole squad listed with no particular player noted as likely to play in the game to be watched. He makes a simple one word comment on that situation, 'Useless'!! How true.
And his observations on players' salaries are most interesting and are given without any malice or thought for how much better he might have been in such circumstances; he loved every minute of his time playing football and he believed that it always had to be fun. There is plenty of nostalgia at his look back at how it was then.
'Greavsie' is a marvellous and gripping read that covers for me the period when football was how it should be played rather than today's oh, so different game ... and Jimmy makes that point most forcibly.
And there is a happy ending as Jimmy and Irene got back together to resume their lifelong love affair and their family life.
I was aware of his burgeoning reputation when I first saw him at Blackpool on 12 December 1959 when I was an impressionable young lad of 13. Blackpool beat Chelsea 3-1 and the Blackpool defence kept a tight rein on him so he did not score his side's consolation goal. I went home and said to my Dad, 'Jimmy Greaves isn't as great as I thought, our defence kept him quiet.' I must confess to a slight disappointment because he was already one of my footballing heroes. A week or so later he was playing at nearby Preston and, with Blackpool away from home, I travelled to watch the game. This time on my return home I said to my Dad, 'I withdraw everything I said about Jimmy Greaves, he is magnificent.' The reason was that, although Preston - through Tommy Thompson who scored all their goals - netted four times, Jimmy scored five and he had three other efforts disallowed! His reputation for me was secured.
By the time I went to London Jimmy had left Chelsea, much to the chagrin of their supporters, had had a very brief spell at AC Milan and had returned to Tottenham Hotspur. I was, therefore, able to watch him on numerous occasions and in one classic spell of just over a month I saw him score five for England, three for Tottenham and then both goals in Spurs' 2-1 victory over Stoke City, for whom another of my heroes and later great friend, Stan Matthews, was playing - and still looking good -at the age of 50.
He continued such form for the rest of his career although when he moved to West Ham United towards the end he was not quite as prolific as in his earlier days. He had left Chelsea for he had seen that the way ahead for the club was not necessarily one that he wanted to be involved in. His move to AC Milan was done somewhat begrudgingly and it proved something of a disaster, although he did score nine goals in not so very many games. But he did not fit in and did not like the regime at the club.
Fortunately he managed to persuade AC Milan that he wanted to return to England and Spurs' manager Bill Nicholson outbid his former club Chelsea for his signature. Nicholson negotiated a £99,999 transfer fee for, as he said at the time, he didn't want Jimmy saddled with the tag of the first £100,000 player. By that time the maximum wage had been abolished in English football and - not by any means by today's exorbitant standards - he was paid a fair wage for his services.
He blossomed with England but injury in the final group match of the 1966 World Cup put him out of the team so he missed out on a World Cup Final place. But, like the consummate professional that he was, he supported his team-mates from the sidelines and enjoyed their success just as much (well, nearly as much!) as they did. His move to West Ham came when Nicholson decided that Spurs wanted to rebuild for the future and with his new club Jimmy kept up his brilliant record of having scored in the first game he played for every senior team he joined.
But by then his goalscoring powers were waning and he knew the end was nigh. In addition he had begun a drinking culture that was to subsequently drag him into alcoholism. He tells the story of that awful time quite dispassionately and it is such a sad tale for his wife Irene and he were inseparable; it was heartbreaking when they both agreed that a divorce was the only answer as Jimmy adored Irene and their four children.
At the time he had become a successful businessman but that all went wrong, too, and, living on his own in a flat, he was distraught. He continued to play some minor football but even that ended prematurely. This part of the autobiography is particularly heart-wrenching and one feels for both he, Irene and the children.
He was always quite a character on and off the field and radio and television realised this and got him involved in various programmes that brought out his cheeky sense of humour. 'Saint and Greavsie' was the most popular but even that ended in tears when the TV company involved just didn't make contact after the end of what was the to be the final series. But by then Jimmy had seen enough of life to be pretty sanguine about it.
He comments on the differences in the game from when he started to today and his comments are amusing but so accurate. I particularly liked the one when he was delineating all the changes for the worse that have taken place in the game and everything associated with it as his point has always been one of my bugbears. He says that a football programme in his day had the teams lined up so that the supporter knew exactly how the two sides were to take the field - even with the Tannoy announcements about team changes - but today the programme, that he likens to a ladies' magazine rather than four pages of essentials for the football fan, has the club's whole squad listed with no particular player noted as likely to play in the game to be watched. He makes a simple one word comment on that situation, 'Useless'!! How true.
And his observations on players' salaries are most interesting and are given without any malice or thought for how much better he might have been in such circumstances; he loved every minute of his time playing football and he believed that it always had to be fun. There is plenty of nostalgia at his look back at how it was then.
'Greavsie' is a marvellous and gripping read that covers for me the period when football was how it should be played rather than today's oh, so different game ... and Jimmy makes that point most forcibly.
And there is a happy ending as Jimmy and Irene got back together to resume their lifelong love affair and their family life.