The late Jimmy Greaves: A Chelsea legend for all seasons

On the day that Chelsea face Tottenham, it’s been announced that the legend Jimmy Greaves has sadly died at the age of 81. There are not many players that can be considered legends at two clubs, particularly two with such an intense rivalry, but Greaves for sure succeeded. He remains the top scorer in a season for both clubs scoring 41 for Chelsea in 1960-61 and 37 for Tottenham in 1962-63.

His Chelsea career began in 1956 in the junior set-up. Having been scouted the year before, that first season saw Greaves score 114 goals. That’s correct 114 goals, he was prolific as a youngster and that continued throughout his career. A year later, he made his professional debut, ironically also against Tottenham, and scored Chelsea’s only goal in the 1-1 draw.

Drawing from Chelsea’s own tribute this morning, Tottenham’s Danny Blanchflower, charged with marking Greaves that afternoon said,

"‘It was the greatest show I have ever seen from a young player on his league debut, the boy is a natural. He is the greatest youngster I have ever played against.’"

By the end of the season, Greaves had amassed 22 goals despite manager, Ted Drake, resting him for 6 weeks during the winter. The seasons that followed saw the striker continue hitting the back of the net. He was literally a goal machine. Two-footed, the opposition simply didn’t know what to expect from him. He was a defender’s worst nightmare.

In the end, Chelsea simply wasn’t good enough to keep hold of Greaves. Whilst he was banging goals in, the defense was letting them in at the other end. A fee was agreed with AC Milan during the 1960-61 season and despite knowing a move was on the cards, he remained focused and as prolific as ever.

When his final game came, against Nottingham Forest, he wore the captain’s armband as a mark of respect for all he had achieved in SW6. The game itself was typical for Chelsea at that time and perhaps showed why Greaves wanted to move away. It finished 4-3 to Chelsea, of course, Greaves scored all four goals. He left the field of play on the shoulders of Blues supporters.

The move to Italy didn’t pan out for him and he wanted to return to England. Tottenham made a move for him and Chelsea was reluctant to get into a bidding war, the rest is history. For the time he spent in North London, seven years, he’s perhaps considered more Tottenham than Chelsea where he was for five years. That was never the case as far as the man himself was concerned. Speaking in 1995 he said,

"‘My affection for the club has never been a secret. It’s probably the greatest name in the world: Chelsea. You think about it. What does it conjure up? It conjures up the best part of the biggest city in the world. Chelsea! It’s magical. And they’ve never lived up to it, but I hope they do. I’m a great Chelsea fan, as you probably know. And I’d love to see it all happen.’"

Well, Chelsea did finally live up to the name and Greavsie, as he was affectionately known, saw it all. His final big club was West Ham United and after that a couple of smaller clubs followed by retirement. For those in the UK, he went on to become a TV personality fronting a weekly Saturday lunchtime football show with former Liverpool player Ian St John called ‘Saint and Greavsie’ It was a must-watch TV. Greavsie was well-loved and will be much missed, may he rest in peace.