Jimmy Greaves - Post Playing Career

Post Playing Career

In the mid-1970s Greaves battled a well-documented alcohol problem, finally quitting drinking in February 1978. He became a popular television presenter and football pundit, striking up a partnership with Ian St. John. Together they hosted a popular Saturday lunchtime football show called Saint and Greavsie from 1985 until the programme was axed in 1992.

Greaves also worked frequently for TV-am as a TV critic and was a resident team captain on ITV sports quiz Sporting Triangles as well as co-hosting the Saturday morning children's television show, The Saturday Show. He briefly had his own talk show and has been a columnist for The Sun newspaper for many years. He also answered readers letters in Shoot magazine in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2002 Greaves was made an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame. He released his autobiography, Greavsie, in 2003 and works as an after-dinner speaker. Greaves has written 18 books in partnership with his lifelong friend, the journalist and author Norman Giller.

Married to Irene since March 1958, when he had just turned 18, he has 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Jimmy and Irene have four children, Lynn, Mitzi, Danny (who was a professional footballer with Southend United), and Andrew.

Greaves said, with regards to the 2010 general election: "I'll vote Conservative, as I always have, but with no great enthusiasm as I'm not convinced by David Cameron. The country really needs another Margaret Thatcher to sort out a huge financial mess and growing trade union power. I'm certain, though, that Britain is sick and tired of Labour."

In April 2005, 44 years after his brief spell at AC Milan, he called for their Milan rivals Inter to be banned from European competitions for three years due to rioting by their fans during the European Cup quarter-final between AC Milan and Inter at the San Siro. However, Inter ultimately avoided exclusion from European competitions by UEFA.

Read more about this topic:  Jimmy Greaves

Famous quotes containing the words post, playing and/or career:

    Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
    The mist in my face,
    When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
    I am nearing the place,
    The power of the night, the press of the storm,
    The post of the foe;
    Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
    Yet the strong man must go:
    Robert Browning (1812–1889)

    When you take a light perspective, it’s easier to step back and relax when your child doesn’t walk until fifteen months, . . . is not interested in playing ball, wants to be a cheerleader, doesn’t want to be a cheerleader, has clothes strewn in the bedroom, has difficulty making friends, hates piano lessons, is awkward and shy, reads books while you are driving through the Grand Canyon, gets caught shoplifting, flunks Spanish, has orange and purple hair, or is lesbian or gay.
    Charlotte Davis Kasl (20th century)

    He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)