Rip Jimmy greaves

[roverandout]

Died at 81

[Ossydave]

Used to love Saint and Greavsie as a boy, back when we weren't forced to involve women in football shows....

Rip Jimmy

[arbitro]

Sad news indeed for one of the English games most natural goal scorers. He fought off some demons to enjoy his life again and the Saint and Greavsie programme was part of a footballing Saturday ritual.

RIP Greavsie.

[tomphil]

Ah Saint and Greavsie ! before SKY's big club propaganda eventually turned everything so serious and boring.

Just reading up on him as a player and never realized how good he was that's some impressive records he has. Shame its never been profiled like it should he never seems to get mentioned amongst the greats of the English game much.

Now if he'd worn a Liverpool or Man U shirt that would've been altogether different.

RIP

[jim mk2]

Forget the TV commentator nonsense. He will remembered as a brilliant goalscorer

Saw Greaves play at Ewood, at Upton Park in his West Ham days and in his final year in non-league for Barnet when he strolled around in midfield

Best memory was Rovers' 7-2 thrashing of Spurs at Ewood in the early 1960s, probably the best Rovers performance I've seen

Greaves scored both Spurs goals IIRC

He took being injured and left out of Alf Ramsey's World Cup-winning team pretty hard, don't think he really recovered

Edited September 19, 2021 by jim mk2

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The best pure goal scorer I ever saw. He was a one off. If he was through on goal you could get ready to kick off again.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

22 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Forget the TV commentator nonsense. He will remembered as a brilliant goalscorer

Saw Greaves play at Ewood, at Upton Park in his West Ham days and in his final year in non-league for Barnet when he strolled around in midfield

Best memory was Rovers' 7-2 thrashing of Spurs at Ewood in the early 1960s, probably the best Rovers performance I've seen

Greaves scored both Spurs goals IIRC

He took being injured and left out of Alf Ramsey's World Cup-winning team pretty hard, don't think he really recovered

Jimmy Greaves got one goal Jim, Dave Mackay got the other with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

[jim mk2]

8 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Jimmy Greaves got one goal Jim, Dave Mackay got the other with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Good job I put IIRC Tyrone. Your memory is better than mine!

[Ianrally]

One of England’s greatest goal scorers, a complete natural, when Spurs were playing at Ewood I just prayed that he was in the side even though there was every chance he would score. When we gave them the 7-2 thrashing it was pretty unbelievable. 
Harry Kane eat your heart out, you’ll never be in the same ball park. 
RIP Jimmy. 

Edited September 19, 2021 by Ianrally

[roverandout]

3 minutes ago, Ianrally said:

One of England’s greatest goal scorers, a complete natural, when Spurs were playing at Ewood I just prayed that he was in the side even though there was every chance he would score. When we gave them the 7-2 thrashing it was pretty unbelievable. 
Harry Kane eat your heart out, you’ll never be in the same ball park. 
RIP Jimmy. 

No modern day striker ever will

[DeeCee]

R.I.P. Greavsie, a superb striker 👌

[roverandout]

57 minutes ago, Ianrally said:

One of England’s greatest goal scorers, a complete natural, when Spurs were playing at Ewood I just prayed that he was in the side even though there was every chance he would score. When we gave them the 7-2 thrashing it was pretty unbelievable. 
Harry Kane eat your heart out, you’ll never be in the same ball park. 
RIP Jimmy. 

Just to add there's no need to have a pop at kane.  His goal scoring record is second to none.  Greaves was a poacher.  Kane is the all round modern forward . He has scored more tournament goals than Greaves. Plus teams played more games back then.  League wise. Harry Kane will go down as one of tge all Time greats

[Mattyblue]

Radio 5 were playing an interview earlier that he did with Jimmy Armfield (two legends, both left out of the ‘66 winning side!) in 1997.

He spoke along the likes of how he had ‘skill, composure, finishing ability… but not very strong in the air and didn’t quite have the power and aggression to be the complete centre forward… that’s Alan Shearer.’

The interview then cut to today and Big Al was on the line almost speechless hearing that!

Edited September 19, 2021 by Mattyblue

[Exiled in Toronto]

41 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Just to add there's no need to have a pop at kane.  His goal scoring record is second to none.  Greaves was a poacher.  Kane is the all round modern forward . He has scored more tournament goals than Greaves. Plus teams played more games back then.  League wise. Harry Kane will go down as one of tge all Time greats

He’s not even in the top 25 all-time top scorers in the English top division, so not quite an all-time great yet. 

[roverandout]

10 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

He’s not even in the top 25 all-time top scorers in the English top division, so not quite an all-time great yet. 

I said he will by the end of his career 

[AllRoverAsia]

RIP Greavsie.

[alcd]

Saw him score in a 5-2 win for Rovers at Ewood in March 1965. He lived about 100 yards along the road from me in the mid-90s. Last saw him in the local Coop looking extremely overweight a couple of weeks before he had a massive stroke. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

12 minutes ago, alcd said:

Saw him score in a 5-2 win for Rovers at Ewood in March 1965. He lived about 100 yards along the road from me in the mid-90s. Last saw him in the local Coop looking extremely overweight a couple of weeks before he had a massive stroke. 

We played Spurs over the Easter weekend in 1965 - 

April 16 th 1965 Spurs 5 - Rovers 2. ( Douglas, McEvoy ) att 36,497.

April 19 th 1965 Rovers 3 - Spurs 1. ( Harrison pen, Douglas, Byrom) att 14,026.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Good job I put IIRC Tyrone. Your memory is better than mine!

That game is etched in my memory. The best performance by a Rovers team in my lifetime. Bryan Douglas got 11 out of 10 for me that day.

[JacknOry]

Not sure we should be comparing stats on a sad day - lets all agree that he was one of the best strikers to ever grace the English game. RIP Greavsie.

[bluebruce]

7 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Radio 5 were playing an interview earlier that he did with Jimmy Armfield (two legends, both left out of the ‘66 winning side!) in 1997.

He spoke along the likes of how he had ‘skill, composure, finishing ability… but not very strong in the air and didn’t quite have the power and aggression to be the complete centre forward… that’s Alan Shearer.’

The interview then cut to today and Big Al was on the line almost speechless hearing that!

If I'm remembering rightly (and google isn't giving me the answers I need here), Shearer and Greaves are the only two strikers in English football history to score 30 league goals for three consecutive seasons. When I was younger I always felt like Al could have taken the record for himself if he had stayed at Rovers one more season, but we will never know (and I can admit now that Newcastle were a better side at the time so perhaps not).

RIP Jimmy. Never saw him play but his goalscoring records breath rarified air.

[Mattyblue]

He could’ve, he carried on as normal in his first season at Newcastle, but that injury he got up there in 97/98 meant he was never the same player and any chance of that went.

[den]

Just before the 7-2 thrashing of Spurs.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Jimmy was a bit of a dog whisperer. During the World Cup game against Brazil in Chile in 1962 he managed to catch a dog that had run on to the pitch and had evaded everybody else. The dog promptly peed on him !
 

Dogs running onto the pitch was a common occurrence back in the day, it never seems to happen nowadays. I recall Noel Dwyer, an international class goalkeeper, got injured trying to catch a dog and was never the same player again.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[oldjamfan1]

12 hours ago, bluebruce said:

If I'm remembering rightly (and google isn't giving me the answers I need here), Shearer and Greaves are the only two strikers in English football history to score 30 league goals for three consecutive seasons. When I was younger I always felt like Al could have taken the record for himself if he had stayed at Rovers one more season, but we will never know (and I can admit now that Newcastle were a better side at the time so perhaps not).

RIP Jimmy. Never saw him play but his goalscoring records breath rarified air.

I suppose we are into ifs and buts territory again but I'm pretty certain Big Al would have scored 30+ in the first premier league season for us as well had Dirty Leeds not lived up to their reputation on Boxing Day. Which would have been another way to break that record.