Product Description

Jimmy Greaves is one of the most well-known footballers to grace the English game, a goalscorer of legendary prowess. His characteristically humorous autobiography journeys from Jimmy's childhood in the East End, through his early career in the Chelsea youth team to being one of the great stars of 1960s football at Spurs, AC Milan and as an outstanding England forward. Jimmy's record as a striker is extraordinary - he was the leading goalscorer in the First Division - now Premiership - for six seasons and during his playing career was never out of the top five. There are darker aspects too - the bitter disappointment of failing to make the World Cup-winning team of 1966, and the battle against the alcoholism that followed his retirement from the game. This book is both Jimmy's story and the story of football in the golden era of the 1950s and 60s, before money changed the game. It is populated by the great players who Jimmy played with and against, and animated by anecdotes about the game. It is an account of how football was then and how it has changed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102834 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 420 pages

Review
'Greavsie is my ultimate hero' - George Best

About the Author
Jimmy Greaves was an outstanding forward for Chelsea, Spurs and England before becoming a popular TV pundit (Saint and Greavsie). He is now a much-in-demand after-dinner speaker.

Customer Reviews

Greaves is Scoring Again!
This is quite simply the best football book I've ever read. Given that Jimmy Greaves was Tottenham's best ever goalscorer and I am a second generation Arsenal fan, that's praise indeed! If, like me, you grew up with Saint and Greavsie on a Saturday morning, you'll quickly recognise Jimmy's humour and frankness.

This is not just a book about career statistics or overcoming self-inflicted addictions. Jimmy also looks at the social history involved in football, he examines how the philosophy of football has changed, and he discusses the metamorphasis of the beautiful game from a working class pastime to a multi-million pound industry.

If you're interested in our national sport, read this book.

Master striker, writing with humour and warmth
An obvious comparison in terms of football autobiography would be Tony Adams' "Addicted", both in terms of the common battle with alcohol and a refreshing frankness in talking about football and the characters and issues involved.

Greaves portrays an age of football that can be looked back on as a 'golden one', when attendances were massive and yet when players could mix with the fans in the local pub after a game. It's amazing to read that he travelled to Chelsea home games on public transport, and that when he became the most expensive player in Britain (£99,999) he still couldn't afford to buy a house.

Greaves also writes with characteristic humour, with hilarious one-liners and a dead-pan perspective about a game he always loved. Those of us old enough to remember Greaves playing will enjoy his descriptions of games and even the back-and-white photographs (including a lovely one of Greaves arriving at White Hart Lane with Billy Nicholson after he signed for Tottenham from Milan).

Greaves was a natural goalscorer of a very high-class, maybe the best in Europe of his era. Hence, despite all his successes, there was a strange edge of disappointment in his career, firstly in missing the final stages of the 1966 World Cup after an injury, and secondly in playing for a Tottenham team in gradual decline after the 1960-1 double season (Greaves arrived just after that).

But Greaves did after all win two FA cup medals and one European Cup Winners' Cup medal (Tottenham were the first English side to win a European trophy), and his optimism and zest for live would see him in good stead as he fought off alcoholism in some dark years after he left Spurs to develop a successful career as pundit and TV personality.

Wonderful book by a great player and a warm human being. Maybe it will convince some of the telly bosses to bring him back to the screen.

It's a Funny Old Game!
Jimmy Greaves is well known to two generations of football fans. Firstly the brilliant goalscorer of Chelsea, Tottenham and England, and to a lesser extent, AC Milan and West Ham. He later re-invented himself as the funniest pundit and made saturday afternoons rivetting viewing with Ian St John.
I found the book to be a great read all the way through. The commentary of his playing career shows a man who loved playing the game in a very different era.
Contrary to other people's views. I found the book to be very witty, mirroring the personality of Greavsie himself.
Football on TV could do with a Greavsie revival.