Jimmy Greaves’ Tottenham career would almost certainly have been longer were it not for one man. Jimmy Thompson, the Chelsea scout who identified his genius from an early age, liked to gamble – but he knew he was on to a guaranteed success story with the boy from East Ham.
Still, the past-time played its part in Chelsea signing the striker as a schoolboy; the £50 of Irish five-pound notes, allegedly given to Greaves’ father after one of Thompson’s successful trips to watch horses in Ireland, has become folklore.
That was not the only quirk of fate which initially kept him out of Spurs’ clutches. Arthur Rowe’s management was renowned, having guided Tottenham to their first ever league title in 1951, but as the decade progressed, his health was declining. By 1955, he would resign as Spurs boss altogether, suffering a nervous breakdown.
Greaves did not sign for Spurs until 1962, when they were – in his own words in a TV interview given at the time – “the finest team in Great Britain and one of the best in the world”. He joined after a year at AC Milan and would go on to win two FA Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup and two Charity Shields, becoming the most successful forward in the history of the club with 266 goals. It all began with a hat-trick on his debut against Blackpool, though he had already scored a brace in a reserve match which attracted a crowd of 14,000 to see him play.
Harry Kane stands on the verge of breaking his record this weekend, having taken his own tally to 265 in last Saturday’s 1-0 win over Portsmouth in the FA Cup. A goal against Arsenal would feel just; like Greaves, Kane’s schoolboy flirtation with one of Spurs’ great London rivals has done nothing to dim his prestige in N17. The odds aren’t bad either, with 14 goals against the Gunners in 16 appearances so far. Kane loves a north London derby more than most.
The England captain has already played more games for the club than Greaves – 412 to 379 – but there is another parallel in how their careers have panned out. Were it not for Daniel Levy’s resolve, and had he got his way when Manchester City came calling, Kane would not still be at Spurs. It is quite possible the trophies which convinced him, two summers ago, that it was time to move on will never materialise at Tottenham, nor with England after his penalty miss against France.
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Jimmy Greaves
- Tottenham goals: 266
- Tottenham games: 379
Harry Kane
- Tottenham goals: 265
- Tottenham games: 412
There is little point trying to directly compare the careers of Kane and Greaves. One is synonymous with the “Glory, Glory” years, even though he did not join until after the 1960-61 Double-winning season. It was also a time when Spurs players would eat fry-ups on the Tottenham High Road before the game, and Greaves liked to smoke. Kane is operating in an altogether different world.
Both suffered heartache when it came to trophies, even if Greaves had a few on the mantelpiece – he was only given his 1966 World Cup winners’ medal in 2009, having missed the final (replaced by Geoff Hurst) through injury in the days before substitutes. Despite decades of struggling for that recognition, he sold the accolade within five years.
In 2017, before White Hart Lane was finally demolished, the two strikers finally met. Greaves was wheelchair-bound, a year after his stroke, and speech was a challenge, but it was clear that Kane was in awe. Unlike the man in front of him, he had not been picked out for stardom from a young age – he did not even make his first league start for Spurs until April 2014, when he was nearly 22.
A record Greaves held for 53 years, which nobody thought would ever be matched, is about to tumble at the hands of a striker who spent his early years loaned out to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich and Leicester. But as Greaves himself liked to say about football, “it’s a funny old game”.
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