Interviews

Mullery: Jimmy was the best of all time

Former Albion boss pays tribute to Tottenham teammate Greaves.

By Bruce Talbot • 20 September 2021

By Paul Hazlewood
Mulley and Greaves were Tottenham teammates for six years between 1964-70 when Greaves scored 220 goals for the club.

Alan Mullery described Jimmy Greaves as the best striker of all time after his former Tottenham teammate died aged 81 on Sunday.

The former Albion boss and the rest of the 31,078 Amex crowd stood in a minute’s applause to remember Greaves before the Premier League win over Leicester City.

Mulley and Greaves were Tottenham teammates for six years between 1964-70 when Greaves scored 220 goals for the club.

Mullery said, “In my opinion he is the best striker of all time. You fall in love with someone like that and the way he played the game.

“Jim was a little fella but the one great thing he had was pace, he could leave people lying on the floor and go past defenders and goalkeepers as easy as pie. Jimmy knew how to do it and do it well.

04:36

MA+ members & STH only - Log-in required

An existing MyAlbion+ membership or season ticket is needed to view this content. Please note that new memberships take 24 hours to be active to view, registering today for Luton Town match streaming will not be valid in time.

Alan Mullery pays tribute to Jimmy Greaves

“To score 40 goals in those days would be like scoring 80 now. He used to say to me ‘you do all the running, I will do all the scoring!’ And that’s what he was, a great goal scorer. If Jimmy was playing now he’d be worth billions, not millions.

“Sometimes I would give him a kick and tell him what to do when he was just walking around. Then he would go past three players and score. When he was one-on-one, you knew he’d score. You could only stop him by cutting his legs.

“If you had Jimmy Greaves in your side you knew you had a good chance of winning the game.”

Greaves also played for Chelsea, AC Milan and West Ham United during an illustrious 14-year professional career during which he scored 347 goals.