Don't look through your Spurs eyes HIAG and you will just see a man who knew about football, who lived and died for his club just like a fan, and said some very profound things in one liners in reply to the usual banal questions from the media of the day. Like Clough a bit later and Strachan today although they were not one club men like Shankley or Bill Nich; that's gone.
That's the trouble, most of his quotes have little or no perspective. I find a lot of them to be silly, if I am being honest.
Greaves' Quotes & Gaffs:- "A man capable of breaking both leg and wind at the same time." - On Paul Gascoigne. "We signed to play until the day we died, and we did." "We are really victims of our own problems." "Football tactics are rapidly becoming as complicated as the chemical formula for splitting the atom." "Wimbledon, with fans." - On the Tottenham side under Gerry Francis. "The biggest regret of my whole football career was leaving White Hart Lane in 1970. My interest weakened after that. I was heartbroken." Ian St. John: Is he speaking to you yet? Jimmy Greaves: No, but I hope to be incommunicado with him in a very short space of time. "He hit the post, and after the game people will say, well, he hit the post." "I'm just about to call up a mate of mine. He's a Michael Jackson look-alike, It's Frank Bruno." "Portsmouth are at Huddersfield, which is always away." "The only thing Norwich didn't get was the goal that they finally got" “[Marco]Tardelli is responsible for more scar tissue than all the surgeons at Harefield hospital put together." "The thing about sport, any sport, is that swearing is very much part of it."
But that's the point HAIG silly answers to silly questions. Like John Lennon's 'we are more famous than Jesus' quote, or Clough beginning his put downs with 'Young man' Python type humour, not for everyone.
Was Shankley joking, do you think? I always took what he said at face value, mainly because all the Mickey Mousers took what he said at face value. That one about beating his wife up for football, I thought he was being serious! So, what you're saying is, that Shankley was having a laugh, but the Mousers never worked it out! The man's a fcuking genius!
Shankley would make his point by saying something that those in the know would understand and everyone else wouldn't. He was explaining what being a football fan was all about and if you are not a football fan why are you asking me these ****ing stupid questions................Go away! Mixed in with some profound stuff. Same sort of humour as Ian Dury IMO. That's how I see him.
Sepp Herberger had some good ones... "The ball is round so that the game can change direction." "The game lasts for 90 minutes" "After the game is before the game" "The next game/opponent is always the toughest one" "The ball is always in better shape than anyone" The best one comes from an Italian club coach of the 70s (I can't for the life of me remember his name): "To build a winning team you need a goalkeeper who saves everything, an assassin in defence, a genius in midfield, a goalscoring forward, and seven donkeys who run around for 90 minutes." Which sounds a lot like Man Utd's squad from last season...
Blinder from SAF 'My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*****g perch. And you can print that!'
Ian Holloway after promotion to the PL...'I couldn't be more chuffed if I were a badger at the start of the mating season.' Hiag
notso, I would like to make it perfectly clear to our Guests & Lurkers that I am not being scary, merely abusing our resident Gooner wum. He's fair game, so the abuse doesn't count
Terry Venables - It leaves you with mixed feelings...like your mother-in-law driving off a cliff in 'your' car!
'My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7.' - David Beckham ' There's no in between - you're either good or bad. We were in between.' - Gary Lineker
'If you don't believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of bed at the end of the day.' - Neville Southall
Wasn't there an 'Arry quote where he said we were so useless at penalties the ref should just give a goal kick? Can't seem to find it at the moment.
