http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...he-Capital-One-Cup-final-against-Chelsea.html
Why Tottenham legend Jimmy Greaves will not attend the Capital One Cup final against Chelsea
Greaves has never returned to White Hart Lane to watch a game - and will not be at Wembley - because of the manner of his departure 45 years ago
When
Tottenham Hotspur and
Chelsea run out at Wembley for the Capital One Cup final, there will be no sign of the man who scored a combined total of 400 goals for both clubs.
Jimmy Greaves has no plans to sit in the Wembley stands to watch two of his former clubs compete for the first domestic trophy of the season.
Despite the fact Greaves remains Tottenham’s highest-ever goalscorer, he has never returned to White Hart Lane to watch a game as a spectator since his playing retirement and has not accepted an induction into the club’s hall of fame.
It is believed Greaves has only attended one match at Stamford Bridge, to take his grandson, who is a fan, to watch Chelsea.
Greaves was not at Wembley to witness Spurs beat Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final and it can only be assumed that he will watch this season’s final on his television.
Telegraph Sport had a request to speak to Greaves about his decision not to go to games turned down, but theories linger around Tottenham that he has never fully forgiven the club for the manner of his departure 45 years ago.
Greaves has made no secret of the fact that he was unhappy with way he felt he was forced out of Spurs to West Ham United in 1970 as part of the deal that took Martin Peters to White Hart Lane.
Having celebrated his 75th on February 20, Greaves turned down the latest invitation from Tottenham to be a guest of honour for the game against West Ham, which took place two days later.
Tottenham marked the landmark birthday of Greaves across all club channels and a half-time announcement at the West Ham game in which the announcer said: “How we’d love to have Jimmy here today.”
Another Spurs legend Ossie Ardilles last week posted a message on Twitter that read:
Twitter: osvaldo ardiles - In Jimmy Greaves birthday party last night. We have to take Jimmy back to White Hart Lane.
The message was retweeted 844 times, with Ardilles claiming he was “trying” to convince Greaves to make a return.
This is not the first time another ex-Spurs star has tried to rectify the situation, as Tottenham have asked former team-mates of Greaves to help their efforts to get him back to White Hart Lane with no success on more than one occasion.
One explanation for his lamentable absence from the hall of fame could be that former players are required to attend a dinner to mark their induction and Greaves, who battled against alcoholism, attempts to avoid events where alcohol is served, unless it is a commercial engagement.
Writing in his autobiography ‘Greavsie’ about his departure from Tottenham, Greaves said: “Bill (Nicholson) informed me that he was at the club and he had Martin Peters with him, who had agreed to join Spurs from West Ham United. Bill went on to say that he was selling me to West Ham as a makeweight in the deal.
“I was taken aback and I was angry. I was so annoyed with Bill for wanting to bring my Spurs career to an end, I simply said, ‘Okay. If you don’t want me at Spurs, I’ll go’. I didn’t have to go, not if I didn’t want to. I still had eighteen months of a contract to run. I could have told Bill I was staying at Spurs and there was little he could have done about it. But I was so peeved that he appeared so willing to get rid of me, I went along with it. What’s the point of staying at a club that doesn’t want you?
“Looking back on that day, I wish I had told Bill I wasn’t interested in moving.”
Greaves has claimed he lost most of the 1970s to drink, following his move from Spurs to West Ham, before managing to stop drinking in 1978.
Greaves scored 268 goals in 381 games for Tottenham over nine seasons after joining the club for a record £99,999 from AC Milan in 1961. He had started his career at Chelsea, where he netted 132 times in 169 games. Greaves is fourth in the list of all-time leading England scorers, having scored 44 goals in 57 appearances.
