Tuesday, September 21

RIP Jimmy Greaves

One of my earliest memories of watching Match of the Day was seeing Jimmy Greaves score a couple of calm finishes on a mudheap at Manchester City as he made his West Ham debut in a 5-1 away win in 1970. That was the season I first started attending games and Martin Peters had just been swapped for cash plus Greaves. 

West Ham was probably the worst club Jimmy could have joined, as it already had a drinking culture. Greavesie was well on the way to becoming an alcoholic and would often be in his Romford local after training until closing time. Yet despite his drink problem Greaves managed to score 13 goals in 40 games for West Ham in his one and a bit seasons. Had the club ever got to grips with his 'refuelling' problems he might have had four of five years left at the top, as it was he retired at just 30 and was involved in the infamous Blackpool nightclub drinking incident before a third round FA Cup tie. I saw his last game for West Ham, a dispiriting 1-0 home defeat to Huddersfield Town. Little known to me a few years later he would be in the alcoholics unit at Warley Psychiatric Hospital, just round the corner from where I lived.

Luckily Greaves overcame his addiction and went on to broadcast fame with On the Ball with Saint and Greavesie. Some of the humour mighty seem dated now but it's doubtful if Baddiel and Skinner's Fantasy Football would have existed without it and the humorous tone paved the way for fanzines eclipsing aggro as part of football culture. So it was good to hear the applause at Sunday's match. RIP Jimmy.

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