The relentlessly effective Tottenham and England player remains the highest scorer in English top-flight football historyFarewell, then, Jimmy. Sporting celebrities come and go but Greaves, who has died at the age of 81, was something different, not just a peerless English goalscorer but a footballer who remained etched in the memory of those who saw him play, who seemed in his prime years to be playing with a rare kind of light around him.There were three aspects to the lasting fascination with Greaves. First, the grace of his movement. Even for those who know him only from archive film it is striking how modern Greaves looked even as a teenager: slim-hipped and dapper, swaying through the heavy-booted defences of the...
Tottenham and England striker with two accurate feet brought magic to football, whether you were there to see it or not• Jimmy Greaves: a life in picturesThere are some heroes you illogically hope will never die, certainly in the imagination. Muhammad Ali was one, George Best another (despite his best efforts) and Jimmy Greaves, too. Even Tottenham fans who never saw him play in the flesh so treasured his deeds it seemed he belonged solely to them. Only Glenn Hoddle and Harry Kane were later revered at White Hart Lane with such unquestioning intensity.Others from the black-and-white era will have loved Greaves for his goals at Chelsea, for England and in early- and late-career cameos at Milan and West Ham....
He scored goals in abundance for Tottenham and Chelsea and his omission from the England team that won the World Cup was the cruellest of blowsWhen Jimmy Greaves was playing against the team you supported, a sense of foreboding accompanied you through the turnstiles. The pleasurable anticipation of witnessing one of the greatest footballers of his era was severely undermined by the knowledge of the effect that this slender, neat-featured, dark-haired, quick-footed little man was likely to have on the course of the afternoon.Like his great contemporary Denis Law, Greaves was a footballer who could appear to be entirely aloof from the proceedings until the moment, perhaps not long before the final whistle, when he flickered into life and settled...
The Poland striker has the most thankless job in international football but earned redemption after creating the equaliserThe second most thankless job in international football is trying to steer England through a mediocre qualifying group. Draws are a humiliation, defeats a disgrace. Wins are either “dreary” or “routine”. If you won narrowly, you were dour and unimpressive; if you won easily, then you can’t read too much into it anyway because of the weakness of the opposition. In a way this is one of those rare scenarios in which neither the process nor the outcome really matters. You are dullards by default; reassessments take place every two years. Next.So it was here for England, who in succumbing to an injury-time...
The teenage midfielder shone on an evening altogether more relaxed than the team’s previous appearance at WembleyAndorra at home on a sleepy Sunday evening in north-west London: it is not exactly an occasion that screams of flares up backsides, ticketless fans storming the turnstiles and beer bottles flying through the air on Wembley Way.Unsurprisingly nobody tried to force their way in to watch England’s second string cruise past the world’s 156th best team in a match devoid of any real competitive edge. Instead the mood was light and relaxed for England’s first game at Wembley since the disorder that marred the Euro 2020 final against Italy, almost as if those who were present were the people who had missed out...