Greaves is revered as not only one of the greatest English goal-scorers, but as one of the greatest ever, in World football. Do you really put Defoe in that class? I certainly do not. There is absolutely nothing for me to stand by, other than fact.
Just to out my two penny worth in here, I think you guys agreeing to disagree. Yes, I think Jimmy himself would have been happy to have scored the goal Defoe did against Reading. Does that make him in Greaves' class? No chance! The big difference between them, IMO, is that Greavesie was just so clinical - give him a half chance, and 9 times out of 10 that was a goal. Conversely, Defoe's conversion rate of chances is nowhere near being in the same league.
As you rightly say Greaves is way better than Defoe - i wanted us to sell JD in the summer, but to be accused of sullying Greaves, my childhood hero, - that's way OTT IMHO I don't get on with HIAG anyway, so just as well i leave him to get on with his opinions without me challenging them. Greaves wouldn't have just been happy to score defoe's goal against reading he'd have been delighted, it was a goal worthy of jimmy at his best - fact
Against that Reading team Jimmy would have scored 9or10 goals easily,my boyhood hero,and i will always cherish the fact that i got to meet him and chat to him on a1to1 basis.
It was the 38th minute and an undefinable uneasiness was spreadng through a silent crowd.Was he delibrately being starved of the ball?Had his brilliance been blunted?Or were we just expecting too much? Greaves,who had spent the morning unconcernedley polishing his Jaguar, answered all the questions in a movement so swift that thousands never really saw it. A long piercing throw from Dave Mackay had glanced off Terry Medwin's head and was lancing chest high across Blackpool's penalty area. Greaves's body,immobile one moment,suddenly became a blur.He was lying on his back in mid air,swinging his left leg througha 130 degree arc and crashing in the kind of shot that makes continentals shriek with emotion. Greaves dismissed his feat with a shrug and a grin.But I have watched him polish that killer-thrust for hours on end. Twenty eight minutes later Greaves had,inevitably,completed his hat trick and another innocently theatrical entrance.
the press creamed themselves when Rooney scored with an overhead kick, Jimmy was scoring them before he was born,as if they were a normal way to score.
I'd still like to hear more about that Chelsea goal, i know plenty about the Blackpool one, that's well documented. But to repeat, I've never heard of his debut goal for Chelsea being described as a 'wonder goal' before TF mentioned it.
I'm glad someone else noticed that. It was complete luck how it turned out. I think RvP had a similar one from a few years back. A scissor (not overhead) kick from edge of the area which everyone completely bummed but the replays clearly show it hitting the middle of his shin. Could've gone anywhere.
I have been looking through my old Spurs cuttings going back to the fifties until I stopped "cutting" towards the end of the seventies.I cannot find a match report of Spurs 1 v Greaves 1 (Chelsea).....darn it.But I do have about a couple of pictures of him scoring.One with Mo Norman sitting on his rear watching! I have one large cutting of Jim scissor kicking in practice.I think he hit the photographer in the face with the ball.
