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272 pages

English

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The Jimmy Greaves We Knew celebrates the life and career of a national treasure through the memories of friends, family, team-mates, the media and fans. They recall a goalscoring great, a TV celebrity - most notably as one half of the legendary Saint and Greavsie - a newspaper columnist, comedian and raconteur who battled alcohol addiction. The modern game also pays tribute to this charismatic, friendly, down-to-earth, witty individual who built a reputation for hitting the back of the net playing for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and England. Greaves set a European record of 357 goals in 516 top-flight games and netted 44 in 57 full international appearances. Tragically, Greaves suffered a stroke in 2015 and died on 19 September 2021, when two of his former clubs, Spurs and Chelsea - plus 60,000 fans - gave him a minute's applause before they played each other at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The love and affection is as strong as ever.

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	19 septembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801504065
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Extrait

Jim was a happy man to live with. My best mate.
Irene Greaves (wife)
I had the most amazing relationship with him. He was like my rock. Dad had a really, really close relationship with the grandchildren.
Lynn Greaves (daughter)
Dad was very kind, very generous and very supporting.
Danny Greaves (son)
The true spirit of the man, the great family man, the great footballer, who transcended the rivalries of clubs, never changed.
Des Benning (cousin)
We were best men for each other because we had grown up together. We were mates.
Dave Emerick (best man)
Jim proved himself to be the greatest goalscorer there has ever been.
Cliff Jones (teammate)
As Jimmy reached me he ruffled my hair [after 17-year-old Perryman made a Greaves goal]. That moment will live with me forever.
Steve Perryman (teammate)

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Mike Donovan, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801503747
eBook ISBN 9781801504065
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Foreword by Terry Baker
Prologue
PART ONE: THE PRIVATE LIFE Nearest and Dearest
1. Irene Greaves
2. Lynn Greaves
3. Mitzi Robinson
4. Danny Greaves
5. Andy Greaves
6. Marion Prescott
7. Des Benning
8. Dave Emerick
9. Brian Doherty
10. Terry Baker
PART TWO: THE PUBLIC LIFE It s a Funny Old Game
11. Matt Barlow
12. Phil Beal
13. Frank Blunstone
14. Barry Davies
15. Terry Dyson
16. Mike England
17. Tony Fall
18. John Fennelly
19. Jeff Foulser
20. Barry Fry
21. Alan Gilzean
22. Ron Harris
23. Glenn Hoddle
24. Sir Geoff Hurst
25. Pat Jennings
26. Cliff Jones
27. Harry Kane
28. Dave Kidd
29. Dave Mackay
30. Bobby Moore
31. Gary Newbon
32. Bill Nicholson
33. Nick Owen
34. Steve Perryman
35. Harry Redknapp
36. Jimmy Robertson
37. Jim Rosenthal
38. I Rossoneri
39. Ian St John
40. John Sillett
41. Richard Worth
42. Tributes
PART THREE: THE PEOPLE Treasuring Their Treasure
43. The fan club
Appendix 1: Poem
Appendix 2: Extras
Appendix 3: Statistics
Appendix 4: The Last Word
Acknowledgements
Image credits
Bibliography
Dedications
James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940-19 September 2021), my football hero.
The Greaves family, friends and fans.
Rosemary, Matthew and Benny.
Dave, Kev, Mac, Mark, Nick, Ray and Tony, thanks for six decades of friendship.
Christine Patricia Ellen and Sean James.
Rod Goodway, rest in peace.
Also by the author
Football s Braveheart: The Authorised Biography of Dave Mackay
The King of White Hart Lane: The Authorised Biography of Alan Gilzean
The King of Dens Park: The Authorised Biography of Alan Gilzean
Glory, Glory Lane: The Extraordinary History of Tottenham Hotspur s Famous Home for 118 Years
Spurs Unsung Hero of the Glory Glory Years: Terry Dyson: My Autobiography with Mike Donovan
Spurs Greatest Games
Chelsea On This Day
Manchester United On This Day
Takenote! Darren Anderton: The Autobiography With Mike Donovan
Murray: Magnificent, Momentous and Memorable Achievements
National Treasure
n. An artefact, institution, or public figure regarded as being emblematic of a nation s cultural heritage or identity.
- Concise Oxford English Dictionary
* * *
Part of the royalties for this book will go to the Jimmy Greaves Foundation, which supports Alcoholics Anonymous, Stroke Association and Dogs Trust.

Foreword
THE IDEA for The Jimmy Greaves We Knew came to me at my great friend s funeral when I could see how much people loved him. I wished for a heartfelt tribute to the one and only Jimmy Greaves, someone I believe remains England s greatest goalscorer and someone I loved very much, and for as many people as possible - family, friends, team-mates and in-the-game admirers - to simply recount their memories of the Jimmy Greaves they knew .
In addition - through running Jimmy s Facebook and Twitter pages - I asked for fans to tell us what he meant to them.
I requested Mike Donovan to put the whole thing together because he has written fantastic books on other Tottenham Hotspur legends, including Dave Mackay, Terry Dyson and Alan Gilzean, although Jimmy will always be his number one Lilywhite hero.
I felt I knew Jimmy before I met him. He was my favourite player from when I was eight years old. My hero. And in 1995 I met him. By the following year, we were firm friends and I was his agent. We were such friends that when he received his 1966 World Cup winners medal in 2009 he took me with him to 10 Downing Street to be presented with it by the prime minister, Gordon Brown. It was a monumental honour to be with him on such a great occasion.
Incidentally, Jimmy was a staunch Tory but the two times he went to Downing Street there were Labour prime ministers in office. Harold Wilson was the other one. He hated their politics. There wasn t a single policy they had which he remotely agreed with but he found both of them very personable.
After Jimmy received his medal, we rushed off, along with the other ten players who had also belatedly received their medals, to Wembley. Those players were Peter Bonetti, Ron Springett, Jimmy Armfield, Gerry Byrne, Ron Flowers, Norman Hunter, Terry Paine, Ian Callaghan, John Connelly and George Eastham. Jimmy and the others were presented on the pitch before England beat Andorra 6-0 in a World Cup qualifier. What a great day that was. As all the others had taken their wives with them, I was dubbed Mrs Greaves for the day by them because they found it funny.
I have been privileged to have lived the life countless football fans would love to have lived, having my greatest heroes become my friends after working with them. None more so than Jimmy Greaves, who I think was Tottenham Hotspur s greatest ever player.
He was a schoolboy and youth phenomenon with Chelsea to start with. Better than anyone then as a young footballer, breaking through as a 17-year-old into the Chelsea team. He is the best youth product the club have ever had - to this day. Irritatingly so for lots of players, I should imagine, as all of Jim s ability came second nature. He showed what a natural he was throughout his career with all his clubs - which also include AC Milan, Spurs and West Ham United - and England.
I think he was England s greatest ever goalscorer. I know he was one of the nicest people I ve ever met in my life and I will always miss him so much.
It was an honour to have worked with him for 25 years. He said to me on many occasions that he had the longest working relationship of his life with me, and I love that as I loved him.
He was a great speaker just as he was a great television presenter and a great, great footballer. And within that he became my great, great friend.
We spent hundreds of hours in theatre dressing rooms up and down the country talking football and nonsense, having serious conversations, but most of all laughing and laughing and telling each other stories about our lives. His was monumental, mine relatively normal, but it was so wonderful for me to get to spend so much time with this great man.
Jimmy told me stuff over the years that has never been published. I used to say to him that when he retired we should write a book entitled Jimmy Greaves: The Truth . But he always said if he published it no one would ever speak to him again. I used to say to him, It doesn t really matter because you don t speak to anybody from the past anyway. That s because on 28 February 1978 he made the decision to stop drinking. A large part of that process involved giving up on his past friends and colleagues from a social perspective. And he succeeded in his mission. It was typical of the man that once he made his mind up properly he could achieve almost anything.
There will be other parts of this book with statistics. I know them off by heart but I don t need them here to tell you that Jimmy Greaves was my friend and, like he was to so many people around the country and further afield, my footballing hero. My hero as a person. It was one of the honours of my life not just to have worked for Jimmy for 25 years but also, of course, to have known him as a friend all that time.
I hope you find this book the ultimate tribute to the most beautiful soul I have known in my life.

Terry Baker
Christchurch,
Dorset,
June 2022
Prologue
I WALKED from Seven Sisters station down Tottenham High Road, or rather - for me - Memory Lane, recalling the nine and a bit years Jimmy Greaves spent at Tottenham Hotspur in my mind s eye, while en route to watch Antonio Conte s Spurs face J rgen Klopp s Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was constructed on the site of the hosts former home, White Hart Lane. A mild for December but cloudy day just before Christmas 2021.
I went past the site of The Swan - a pub turned pizza restaurant - where my dad played darts in the company of Bobby Smith, when the Spurs centre-forward was taking downtime from partnering Greaves.
Past the building converted into flats which once housed the Prince of Wales General Hospital where Dave Mackay and Cliff Jones, two mor