GREAVSIE /BT SPORT

BT SPORT are beginning to make a name for themselves for their sporting documentaries. I did not see their documentary on the Stop The Tour – the demonstrations against the South African rugby tour of 1969/1970 and cancellation of the cricket tour led by Peter Hain but those that did liked it.

I did watch Greavsie. It was a welcome reminder that football did exist before SKY and – on record and craft alone – England have never produced a striker to equal Jimmy Greaves.

A recovering alcoholic he then made a second career as jocular frontman to the foil of Ian St John, football’s  greatest TV double act.

In a thorough overview of his life, one thing which could have had more emphasis was the stir when he was dropped by Spurs.

It was such a big a story that Match of the Day featured the reserve match in which he played against Arsenal when a young Arsenal striker by name Ray Kennedy scored with a superb shot.

What was  Jimmy Greaves’s skill-set as striker?

Beautifully balanced, two-footed, he would glide over the pitch and pass the ball into the net.

Against this, he was lazy, not that good in the air and paid little attention to fitness; he could not cope with the extreme  fitness and disciplined regime of AC Milan.

Would he have scored goals today? Undoubtedly. Since him there have been plenty of strikers who could score and little more: think Gerd  Muller, another alcoholic, Schillaci and Glenn Murray.

Watching Spurs play Leipzig in  their traditional lily-white kit under the lights and any number of presenters who think they are funny but are not, I remember that Greavsie era and his show with St. John with respect and affection.