The club brought Jimmy Greaves back from Italy in 61, we already had the top striker in the league in Bobby Smith and done the double , did this stop the club improving or worrying about upsetting The striker , no , this was the way to do things DL take note , Jimmy was the best and we went out to get him
Was there a gulf in finances in 1961 that meant some clubs could be offering £80m+ for his services without thinking about it while most clubs couldn't?
Did we win the league again though? Didn't we just go gradually down hill? We were not lacking money or ambition so what stopped us?
Wasn't Mackay out for long periods due to broken leg injuries ?? The tragic loss of John White ?? How many pts per season since 1961 do you think the team lost due to the above, that even the brilliance of Greavsie could not compensate for ??
At school there were a few short books on legendary footballers. Greaves was the book I enjoyed most of all, his entire story was fascinating and heavily leaned towards him given he was a Chelsea academy product/fan. Ironically when I was at the Chelsea v Villa game my mate's Dad said [when comparing Lukaku to the great strikers] he'd never seen a player who could produce a goal out of nothing like Greaves could. He was saying you'd often see Greaves have a quiet game but still manage to score multiple goals. It speaks volumes about the man that he played for Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham and is revered by all three fanbases. R.I.P.
Quite likely, which just shows how tenuous success can be. I expect Kane has missed as many matches as Mackay did for example. But when we lose someone like Dembele today we are somehow supposed to sign someone equally good. The examples of White and Mackay show what happens when you replace excellent players with good ones like Venables and Mullery.