A special man, a special player and master craftsman
Hsteve Perryman was 17 when he first played with Greaves and recalls a Spurs great who was always generous with advice
Iwas lucky enough to play with Jimmy Greaves as a 17-year-old. I joined Spurs at 15, I had watched this great man, this great player from the sidelines. When our training finished I watched the first team and Jimmy was scoring these wonderful goals.
All of a sudden, I was thrown into the deep end, in a struggling team, and was playing alongside him. You have to realise that, say you are playing Manchester United, that is Best, Law and Charlton – great, great players. So this 17-year-old could be overawed.
But the fact you could train with Jimmy and he would not be picking you up on a mistake and he would be telling you how well you had done after games, you realised if you were pleasing him you were entitled to be on the same pitch as Best, Law and Charlton. You gained confidence from that.
Jimmy was great at passing on his knowledge. He took me to task, one time, against Bradford City in a particular banana skin in the cup, played on ice. Just before half-time I tried to play the ball to him through someone’s legs – that was not my style actually – but it got cut out and they broke and scored.
Bill Nicholson mentioned it three or four times – “Jimmy, make an angle for him” – and because he did so, Jimmy stood up and said: “Steve, don’t try and be flash again, because I’ll get the b--------- for it!”
So there was always a bit of humour in what he said. I only played with him for six months, of course, but in later years I got involved with him when he was on his theatre tour. I would get invited to certain venues and would always get there early to sit with him for an hour and just get his take on things.
Jimmy was clever enough to know, say at the time I was helping Exeter, our last six results, where we sat in the league, where we finished last season. Other players I used to play with did not even know where Exeter was.
He also had an opinion on the Essex cricket team, rugby… this was a bright guy, a bright mind, very quick wit, quick brain, and that is what he lived on in his goalscoring days.
Jimmy was what I would call a professional goalscorer. He was in the team to score goals. He did not really run around, did not really sweat, he just waited for his chance because, when it came, he would normally take it. And if he did not, he would have the confidence to know the next one he would take.
He was not Bobby Charlton, hitting them from 30 yards… he was a master craftsman at scoring goals. I applaud him for that because I never even used to think about scoring goals.
These days, he would thrive off the lack of physicality. He was not the biggest. I do not think I ever saw him do weights and he was not the most athletic type; if we did a 10-lap race, Jimmy was a lap behind everyone. But he was sharp off the mark, and sharp in his mind.
He had the balance and sharp brain of Lionel Messi. He was not Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of his leap – I remember him scoring one goal in the air, but his feet were on the floor! I come back to the same thought – he was a professional goalscorer.
There is a generation who have forgotten about Jimmy. But we are obsessed with stats and figures now and just look at Jimmy’s. They are amazing.
Special man, special player and a master craftsman at scoring goals. How many in this world can say that?
We are obsessed with stats. If you look at Jimmy’s, they are amazing