Italy, 1961... and an unhappy Englishman used to his fish and chips and a drink or two, was now expected to be eating pasta and, if lucky, drinking the occasional glass of red wine. His original diet had never prevented him from becoming a scoring sensation, but luckily enough, for Tottenham Hotspur, the strict regime at A.C.Milan obviously didn't suit Jimmy Greaves.

Bill Nicholson, the Spurs manager, knew a thing or two about football (he was one of the best managers England and the world has ever seen), and he was eager to bring Greaves back to English soil.

He finally got his man for £99,999. Was it money well spent?

On his first full appearance for us against Blackpool on 16th December 1961, Jimmy scored a hat-trick in the 5-2 drubbing of a very good team. One of his goals, a bicycle kick, was regarded by many who saw it as the best goal they had ever witnessed!

In his first season for Tottenham he scored 21 goals from 22 league appearances, finishing as top goal scorer for Spurs and helping Tottenham to a final league position of third place.

It was a season in which the 'Lillywhites' were attempting to retain their place as F.A.Cup holders. The two best English clubs at that time were ourselves and Burnley, and the 1962 F.A.Cup final at Wembley was graced with the spectacle of the two footballing giants doing battle. An early goal by Greaves, a wonderful second by Bobby Smith and a late penalty by Danny Blanchflower, secured a 3-1 victory for Tottenham.

The following season appeared to be a difficult one for Jimmy Greaves, as he had now made such a name for himself at Spurs, how was he to keep up the standards he had already set himself? His response was an incredible 37 league goals in the 1962-1963 season...an all time Spurs record!

The next year saw him net 35. He was the top division scorer six times from 1958-1969 and was the only player ever to head the list for three consecutive years. He scored two goals in the 1963 European Cup Winner's Cup Final in a 5-1 thrashing over Atletico Madrid. A fantastic achievement considering Blanchflower virtually played on one leg because of injury and the incomparable Dave Mackay was missing altogether.

Opposing teams feared Jimmy's clinical finishing and Nottingham Forest had a particular dislike of him...he scored 29 first class goals against them, and netted four goals a game on three separate occasions.

He won another F.A.Cup Winner's medal with Tottenham in the 1967 2-1 win over Chelsea. Although it has to be said, it wasn't one of his better matches, not surprisingly as Ron (Chopper) Harris was the man assigned to mark him and I'm sure Greavsie received a lot of marks (studs) from his redoubtable opponent.

Jimmy played for England 57 times, scoring 44 goals, but went through the agony of being dropped by Alf Ramsey and replaced by Geoff Hurst in the 1966, 4-2 World Cup triumph over West Germany.

He played his last game for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1-0 fourth round F.A.Cup replay defeat by Crystal Palace on the 28/01/1970.

He then moved on to West Ham.

In his 321 league appearances for Spurs he scored an amazing 220 goals.

Although being one of the best strikers of all time he did have a reputation of being a bit of a lazy player. He tended to disappear during games and then all of a sudden pop up from nowhere and score. One of Bill Nicholson's quotes after a game, referring to Jimmy, was, "All he did this afternoon was score those four goals"!!!