Friday Funnies: Duckers on the ball!
THIS week gossip columnist and man-about-town John Duckers is on the ball as he discovers how the second city saved the career of one of England’s greatest ever footballers.
Legendary soccer star Jimmy Greaves has paid tribute to Birmingham for giving him a job when he most needed one.
Greaves was one of our greatest footballers – part of the England squad which won the 1966 World Cup, unlucky enough to get injured in the last of the pool matches whereupon he lost his place to Geoff Hurst, hat-trick hero of the final.
His on the pitch career took him to: Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham and West Ham – but by the time it was all over he was an alcoholic.
Quitting the booze – he hasn’t had a drop for years – he struck up a fantastic broadcasting combination with one-time Scotland and Liverpool striker Ian St John.
And it was all put together, with the massive help of Gary Newbon out of the then ATV/Central studios in Birmingham – Gary supposedly receiving bomb threats from angry footie fans in the city after claiming Greavsie had described the Blues as ‘boring’.
Speaking at a Karl Ward sporting lunch at Opus, Greaves said: “As a recovering alcoholic I got a job here.
“This city did a lot for me – it brought me back to life. I am eternally grateful to this city.”
Greaves started out during the era of the £20 maximum wage – can you imagine that today?
Signed professional forms at 17, and his first contract was £8 in the winter and £7 in the summer.
I particularly found amusing his tongue in cheek version of how he left Chelsea for AC Milan in a big-time transfer – players rarely moved out with their own country in those days.
“The boss said ‘We’ve just sold you; we need the money’. I said ‘Who to?’ he said ‘AC Milan’. I said ‘Well where the **** are they’? He said ‘Italy’. I said ‘so where the **** is that’?
“I mean, at that time, there were just two flights a week to Milan out of Heathrow … and I kept missing both of them!”
After a season or so he was brought back to England by Tottenham and their great manager Bill Nicholson as part of the double winning side of 1961.
“I was that desperate to get out of Italy I would have signed for Dagenham and Redbridge – but I came back to the best Spurs team of all time. That team at that time was the best in the world.”
Subsequently he struck up a telepathic partnership with Scottish international Alan Gilzean.
“He came down from a cave in Dundee. Actually it was worse than that – somewhere called Coupar Angus. I showed him all the things in London – electric lights, carpets on the floor … but what a great player.”
Amazing tales.
• For more questionable gossip, tittle tattle and trivia from Birmingham’s business community see Duckers & Diving .
