Tottenham’s Greatest Ever Striker

[Kid Chameleon]

I wouldn't be so sure. If Kane has a season where he's fully fit for every game, it wouldn't surprise me if he beats Allen's record. It wouldn't surprise me that much if he beat Dixie Dean's record, to be honest, He's that good.

Clive Allen was a one season wonder. He never got anything like 49 goals in a season again. In the following season, he got a much more modest 13 and was offloaded to Bordeaux in the summer of 88. My guess is that Clive found goals a lot harder to come by when Hoddle left for Monaco and Chris Waddle was injured for a good chunk of 87/88.

Harry is a much better player and he's been producing year in year out for the last six years.

 

[Pump0293]

Fuck Lineker up the arse with a twirling lawnmower.......
Next!

He would still score with that up his arse

 

[Pete27]

Think he was with us at a bad time to be at Spurs - around the time we got relegated.

A few years earlier or a few years later he'd have been a star with other stars around him. - when Duncan was at Spurs he didn't have other players around him performing at their peak.

Think he was with us at a bad time to be at Spurs - around the time we got relegated.

A few years earlier or a few years later he'd have been a star with other stars around him. - when Duncan was at Spurs he didn't have other players around him performing at their peak.

Good point. But that's why I was so surprised that he left us when he did. We had just signed Ossie and Ricky - and Glenn was getting established in the team, so he was certainly getting better service than in his previous years at the club.
If he had stayed for a while and kept clear of injuries, we'd probably never have signed both Crooks and Archie.

 

[THFC historian]

A topic which always divides the room.

A great read and refreshing for me to hear such names at the beginning of your piece mentioned as they, quite frankly, aren't enough.

Discounting Jimmy Greaves (how could I?) Bobby Smith for me is the stand out candidate and I've weighed this question up many times over the years.

His strength, awareness and finishing was exquisite. I could make a case for all those others you've mentioned too - we really have been blessed.

 

[bunburyist]

Had another go at this just now



82/153 - And it actually felt like I was doing quite well. 54%

Typing in Mido’s name was painful. God we’ve come a long way

 

[Bazali]

Gilzean is much forgotten now because of the stats of goals scored.

But he joined Spurs to play alongside Jimmy Greaves, and then after Jimmy left he combined with the great Martin Chivers, so no surprise that those two scored most of the goals leaving Gilzean's 93 goals in 343 appearances looking a little shabby......but of course Gilzean's threat made space for both Greaves and Chivers plus a number of assists (before assists were counted) so he certainly helped make their stats better.

Worth remembering too that Gilzean won the Scottish top league scoring 169 goals in 190 appearances when the Scots had real footballers - he played in a European Cup semi final for Dundee, whilst of course Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, so it was a really good league then and far different from today. So without Greaves or Chivers I have no doubt Gilzean's goal contribution would have been a lot higher at Spurs.

But those glanced headers, hardly ruffling the couple of hairs on his head, of which he was the master.....probably have never been repeated.

Fantastic player to have in your side

Yup

One of my favourites and the G man combination with Greavsie was lethal

 

[NotThatTedHughes]

Greaves.

His goal rate per game is about 20% better than Harry.

 

[Bazali]

Greaves.

His goal rate per game is about 20% better than Harry.

And better than Charlton’s for England

 

[LEGO Boy]

Greaves falls into a Different class for me, His name goes into the pot of Greatest striker of all time, anywhere. His ability to hit the ball just inside of the post was ridiculous.

and a little shout out for Chris Jones. Just remember his goals with affection. Not many like.

Chris Jones? Never heard of him!

 

[Bazali]

Chris Jones? Never heard of him!

The Welsh wizard!

Great player

 

[oldwiltshireyid]

Chris Jones? Never heard of him!

Cliff Jones brother ? Probably not!

 

[Andy66]

Chris Jones? Never heard of him!

Biography: Former England under-21 international who played most of his professional football for London based clubs. The only exception being Manchester City. He had signed from Spurs for £110,000 in 1982 but quickly returned to the capital after only 5 league appearances. Went on to play for Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Leyton Orient. Retired in 1986 as a result of an injury which had plagued him for some time. Eventually returned to Jersey, where he was born, to run his own youth academey - Chris Jones Soccer School.

 

[Blanchflower]

Hard to look past Jimmy Greaves. Definitely a goal-scoring genius.

Look at his season by season record and it's just incredible. He's scoring 30+ goals a season as a teenager and maintains that for most of the 1960's. Can't think of anyone else that can match those numbers from such a young age.

Messi is the only one - and he's probably the best ever

 

[Tottenham Sean]

Almost certainly never happened

a) because it was Rodney Marsh that used this joke about 30 years earlier
b) Pav needed a translator for everything

And it was said to Alf Ramsey, which was almost as bad as saying to your own Mother.

 

[Matt1882]

You probably need 2 difference questions
Who is Tottenhams greatest ever striker?
Who is the greatest striker to ever play for Tottenham?

I'm sure most will point to Greaves as the answer to both. But you have to bring the likes of Lineker, Klinsman, Allen and now Kane into the equation for the latter.
Kane, if he stays, will one day usurp Greaves IMO.

 

[White Van Jan]

Harry Kane and Jimmy Greaves really are from different eras (not just the 50 or so years) in so many ways - the whole area of training is hugely changed with trained being something that takes up a full day for Kane on 'no match' days, whereas for Greaves and co training was very much a couple of hours, with afternoons dedicated to golf, days in pubs or whatever and at half time in a match Greaves would be known to have a swift half or pint and a fag - unthinkable to today's generation.

And if you go back 50 or 60 years before Greaves, Spurs star striker was Vivian Woodward, - 61 goals in 131 league games (about 1 in 2) and with an England career of 29 goals in 23 matches.....but at that time England caps were only awarded for games against the Home Nations, with games v France, Netherlands and other european sides being played by the England amateur side of for which Woodward played with 57 goals in 44 matches.

Interestingly FIFA recognise most of these amateur games as being full caps, although not the FA, and under FIFA rules Woodward would the be all time highest England goalscorer, not Rooney, but even under the FA rules he was highest ever England goalscorer for almost 50 years after he retired.

Woodward captained Spurs, England and England amateurs as well as a Great Britain side who won the olympics football in 1908 and 1912.

And all that as an amateur, being a full time architect by day so limited time for training and indeed could have played more for Spurs if he had not needed a full time day job to earn money - so he cannot be compared to Greaves due to the level of training he did (or rather didn't do)

Kane is a fantastic player and fantastic goalscorer - and so was Greaves before him and no doubt Woodward before him.

Just from such different eras we really cannot easily compare them.

Thanks for sharing, great story. I thought I knew a fair bit about Spurs history, but this completely passed me by. Looking at what pros earn these days it seems incredible there was a time when a great player would remain an amateur because being pro would "get in the way of his Architectural practice, and the cricket season"!!!

I've looked on Wiki but can't find any mention of any descendants?

 

[Spursidol]

Didn't he score 5 in one game for England once?
Sickening that the FIFA recognise the amateur games,but the FA don't.

Think he scored 5 or more a couple of times in international matches.

Can't see the FA changing their minds now, would be embarrassing. Still staggering that even under the FA rules it took almost 50 years for Tom Finney to overtake Woodward - and that with his last England goal in his last England appearance.

Its a bit like the 'nothing existed before PL' mantra that Sky churn out.

 

[Spursidol]

Thanks for sharing, great story. I thought I knew a fair bit about Spurs history, but this completely passed me by. Looking at what pros earn these days it seems incredible there was a time when a great player would remain an amateur because being pro would "get in the way of his Architectural practice, and the cricket season"!!!

I've looked on Wiki but can't find any mention of any descendants?

Haven't seen any mention of descendants.

Vivian Woodward

A detailed biography of Vivian Woodward that includes images, quotations and the main facts of his life. Key Stage 3. GCSE British History. A-level. Last updated: 1st June 2022

spartacus-educational.com

You might find this article on him interesting - not just cricket also a top tennis player in his day.

Also how the press reported his death - but now almost forgotten as a football player.

(12) Evening News (February, 1954)

Vivian J. Woodward, one of the greatest centre forwards England ever had, died last night, aged seventy-four, at a nursing home at Ealing. He had been ill for four years.
Woodward had a most illustrious career. He was a director of Tottenham Hotspur as well as their centre forward. He was also a director of Chelsea during the time he played for that club.
For many years he was England's centre forward or inside right and, including his amateur and Olympic Games honours, played for England more often than any other player.
He was an out-and-out amateur. Directors of the Spurs and Chelsea have told me they could not get him to charge his bus fares for matches.
He played entirely for his love of the game, and under a code which nowadays would be thought not to belong to this world.

(13) The Times (February, 1954)

Mr Vivian Woodward was to many of my generation the greatest footballer they ever saw, and the living embodiment of the finest spirit of the game. His brilliant play and his outstanding leadership of the victorious British team in the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912 will never be forgotten by those who were there; he did much to form the splendid tradition of clean play and sportsmanship which has endured in the Olympic competition ever since.

 

[Tottenham Sean]

He served in the London Diehards as well,along with Walter Tull

 

[1chriswaddle]

Totally agree that Greavsie & H deserve to be 1and2 on the list but honourable mention please for one of my all time favourite players-Steve Archibald. The relationship between Steve and the Shelf really was something to behold........