Jimmy Greaves RIP

[Filo]

A great striker in his day, unlucky that Hirst took his place in 1966

[Herbert Anchovy]

A great striker in his day, unlucky that Hirst took his place in 1966

A crying shame there’s not more footage of him in his pomp. When I first moved down here all the old boys on the building sites would wax lyrical about how great he’d been for Chelsea, Spurs and West Ham. He was the only thing that united them!

A true footballing great and very probably the greatest English striker of all time.

RIP Greavsie

[Bentley Bullet]

He'll have his own personal saint up there.

RIP

[Bollinger]

Very sad. An incredible player and one that had the guts and ability to go do the job in Italy long before that sort of thing was commonplace.

Had a chat with him after he did a talk at some event and he was well up to speed with Rovers’ struggles in the Conference and spoke in glowing terms about Alick Jeffrey and the Snodins. Clearly had a great respect for all levels of the game.

(Unlike, I should add, Gary Lineker, who at a Q&A after an event openly laughed at my support of DRFC and made every predictable joke at the likes of us, Accrington and Rochdale at every opportunity)

[roversdude]

Can’t remember him as a player but knew he had been a legend, loved Saint and Greavsie

[SydneyRover]

This is a great catalogue of photos of him.

''Jimmy Greaves: a life in pictures''

https://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2021/sep/19/jimmy-greaves-a-life-in-pictures

[bobbymax]

He was one of the best forwards this country has produced when in his pomp. His World Cup disappointment broke him for a long time.

[idler]

He was a fantastic finisher and passed the ball into the net rather than trying to burst the net.
I once saw him score a free kick where he started his run up checked, and then put both arms out and looked at the ref. The wall all turned their heads to look at the ref as Jimmy then carried on and put the ball into the corner of the net. Pure genius.
I have a Rovers v Chelsea FA Cup programme signed by Jimmy..
I don't think that he played that day and he certainly didn't when Chelsea beat us 6-0 at Belle Vue in the League Cup a few years later.
We were gutted but I shudder to think of the score had he played that night.

[johnny rovers]

Used to live watching Saint and greavsie as a kid. In the early 90's they did a small feature on the rover's which Jimmy attend a game and he was full of praise for the club and the fans.

[Filo]

Not football related, but Boycie has gone today as well

[Colin C No.3]

You can’t take away Geoff Hurst’s World Cup Final hat trick, which still remains unbeaten, but his inclusion in that side came about because of an injury to Jimmy earlier in the tournament.

He was fit for the final but Alf stuck with Hurst, which as has been said, must have hurt Jimmy. More in the way Ramsey went about it I suspect more than anything. I always got the impression that Alf Ramsey was a very autocratic person, not one to explain one on one with players the reason behind them not being chosen in the team.

Jimmy scored on his debut for every major club he played for, including for England, an incredible feat.

In ´Saint & Greavsie’ he became part of a an incredible footballing duo alongside Ian St John. They were a ‘must watch’ for all football fans. Their camaraderie, humour, football knowledge was second to none. Gentler times.

His latter years were sadly impaired by a stroke he suffered which confined him to a wheelchair & made communication very difficult for him.

His book ‘This One’s On Me’ where he speaks candidly about his alcoholism during his playing days is a must read. He fought the disease & was ultimately  ‘the winner’. I distinctly remember one passage in the book where he says his biggest regret in succumbing to alcohol was that in fighting it daily meant he ‘Would never be able to have a pint with his sons’.

One of my footballing heroes.

[Campsall rover]

Probably the most natural goal scorer i have ever seen.

R.I.P.  Jimmy.

[PDX_Rover]

A genuinely great man. I’m not old enough to remember him playing but I’ve seen footage and of course, he was hilarious with Saint.

[Prez]

Very sad. An incredible player and one that had the guts and ability to go do the job in Italy long before that sort of thing was commonplace.

Had a chat with him after he did a talk at some event and he was well up to speed with Rovers’ struggles in the Conference and spoke in glowing terms about Alick Jeffrey and the Snodins. Clearly had a great respect for all levels of the game.

(Unlike, I should add, Gary Lineker, who at a Q&A after an event openly laughed at my support of DRFC and made every predictable joke at the likes of us, Accrington and Rochdale at every opportunity)

Cant stand Lineker. People need to look past his fake squeeky clean image. He is a Kitson of the highest order.

Regarding St and Greavsie they did do a piece on Rovers as Johnny Rovers pointed out. I think we beat Rochdale 2-0 on a friday night and Greavsie spoke very well of us.

RIP great man.

[selby]

An absolutely brilliant player, remember an England u23s side forward line I saw at Hillsborough Wilkinson Haynes Baker Greaves Charlton brilliant.

[jmt23]

Not old enough to have seen him play, my memories are of him and Ian St John "saints and geevesy" Rovers got surprisingly a lot of coverage, one that's sticks in my mind was where he asked rovers fans to cut out the bad language, something about the poor referees and away fans were being battered with a torrent of abuse.

They made a great deal of our keeper saving three penalties in a row too, I think he got an award off them for it.

RIP

[scawsby steve]

He was a fantastic finisher and passed the ball into the net rather than trying to burst the net.
I once saw him score a free kick where he started his run up checked, and then put both arms out and looked at the ref. The wall all turned their heads to look at the ref as Jimmy then carried on and put the ball into the corner of the net. Pure genius.
I have a Rovers v Chelsea FA Cup programme signed by Jimmy..
I don't think that he played that day and he certainly didn't when Chelsea beat us 6-0 at Belle Vue in the League Cup a few years later.
We were gutted but I shudder to think of the score had he played that night.

I hate to say this, Idler, because BB and Wolfie might have a field day with it, but I was at that FA Cup game, and Jimmy Greaves did play, and made the assist for McNichol's goal.

They beat us 2-0, and Jimmy was just 17 and was fantastic. It was a shame that it was not all that long after we'd lost Alick and Gregg, because they might have made a huge difference.

[idler]

No problem Steve. I’m always happy to be corrected.
I always thought I was told that he didn’t play in that game. I wasn’t allowed to go to first team games until we were relegated to the newly formed  3rd division. At least now I can assume that he signed the programme either before or after the match rather than at a later date.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Imagine his transfer worth in today’s game?. Most of all I enjoyed Saint and Greavsie, they had such a great rapport and made talking about the game fun.

They loved what they were doing. It would be nice to have a programme that is similar today.
Everything is just too serious.

[johnny rovers]

Imagine his transfer worth in today’s game?. Most of all I enjoyed Saint and Greavsie, they had such a great rapport and made talking about the game fun.

They loved what they were doing. It would be nice to have a programme that is similar today.
Everything is just too serious.

You mean woke.

[HomerJSimpson]

Saint and Greavsie reunited. Sad end in the latter years but what a legacy he leaves behind. RIP

[Highland Rover]

 Lucky enough ( and old enough ! ) to see him play  twice and he scored 7 times !
 4 for England against our own Harry Gregg and 3 for Spurs against Wednesday ( Peter Swan and co )
 Best natural goal scorer I have seen , playing  in a great Spurs forward line which included Cliff Jones , Bobby Smith and John White