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The outpouring of support for Jimmy Greaves, following his admission to intensive care after a severe stroke, flows from heartfelt reverence for one of the greatest strikers ever to place a ball past a wrong-footed keeper, for memories of his entertaining television appearances, and also respect for a truly likeable man contending with some of life’s brutal blows.

At 20, Greaves lost his first son, Jimmy Junior, to pneumonia when the poor boy had reached only four months of age. Greaves never sought sympathy for what happened at the World Cup six years later, a personal heartache that became part of the national football curriculum when he suffered that gashed leg against France and saw Geoff Hurst become England’s leading light. It could have been him. For the alcoholism blurring much of the Seventies, Greaves blamed only himself, and a genetic frailty.

^{Greaves is a Tottenham and England legend}

Images of Greaves in his playing pomp, with his “let’s go to work” aura, lean physique and swept-back hair contrast with the more recent ruddy‑faced perception. For too long, Greaves has been depicted as a slightly sad figure, shuffling around the after‑dinner circuit, when his contribution to the football canon of this country should be celebrated extensively, not chronicled with “if only” subtext.

Sometimes it takes moments like Monday’s, and the distressing news released by his family, to focus the mind on the 75-year-old’s astonishing achievements in the game. Modern hipsters obsessed with statistics should gorge on these numbers: Greaves scored 422 goals in 602 games (including the Charity Shield) for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, becoming the First Division’s leading scorer six times.

^{Greaves recorded a goal every 117 minutes for England (44 in 57 internationals)}

He recorded a goal every 117 minutes for England (44 in 57 internationals). Even the fabled trio ahead of Greaves in the national charts cannot be deemed more clinical: Wayne Rooney (47 in 103), Gary Lineker (48 in 80) or Sir Bobby Charlton (49 in 106).

Such figures alone, let alone his contribution to Sir Alf Ramsey’s side reaching the knockout stage of the World Cup, guarantee legendary status.

Yet some just associate Greaves with the drinking, the post-career television partnership with Ian St John, the pithy tabloid columns and the laugh-along cabarets with Pat Jennings, the Saint, Ron “Chopper” Harris (his most feared foe) and in a poignant double act for a period with George Best.

Some perspective is both in order and timely. Even slightly below-par, Greaves would stroll into any current Premier League side, would walk into the England team. He was a sure-footed forward who kept his balance and composure on rutted surfaces against cynical opponents willingly out to maim. Hello Chopper. Hello Norman Hunter.

^{Greaves celebrates with the FA Cup}

At his best, particularly in the lilywhite of his beloved Spurs, Greaves’s game was football stripped to its beautiful essence, embodying the art of propelling the ball in the net, never blasting, just placing. “He could pass to the stanchions” was the considered, approving verdict of his Spurs manager, the esteemed Bill Nicholson. Greaves was the goal machine behind the glory game.

Raised in West Ham country, Spurs were always Greaves’s true love, a passion forged from a young age, but sharper scouting saw him lured to Chelsea, scoring on his debut as a 17‑year-old at, of all places, White Hart Lane. “The finest first-ever League game by a young player I have seen,’’ Charles Buchan gushed in the News Chronicle.

Ted Drake’s Chelsea team were hardly precocious, so Greaves’s prolific scoring (132 in 169) is worthy of even more praise. He was only 20 years and 290 days when reaching 100 league goals, during a hat-trick against Manchester City on Nov 19, 1960. He scored four on his last appearance for cash-strapped Chelsea (against Nottingham Forest) before being sold to AC Milan for £80,000, gaining him £130 a week.

Annoyingly, Greaves’s spell in Italy is ritually denigrated. In fact he contributed nine goals in 12 league appearances for a team of such noted individuals as Gianni Rivera, Jose Altafini, Cesare Maldini and Giovanni Trapattoni hurtling towards Serie A honours. Greaves left Lombardy early, having failed to settle with his young family, but acquired an expertise of dealing with tricky defences.

^{Greaves was once sold to AC Milan for £80,000}

And so to Spurs, for £60 a week. He scored in the 1962 FA Cup final win and joined in the limbo dancing at the post-match banquet. He always scored. Reminiscences of Greaves’s effortless finishing frequently occupy conversation when Spurs supporters of a certain vintage gather pre-match.

Anyone with access to footage of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final of May 15, 1963, will fully appreciate why Greaves will always be treasured at Tottenham. Facing the favourites Atlético Madrid, Nicholson’s team appeared to have endured a grievous blow when Dave Mackay was ruled out through injury. Yet this proved one of those games when Greaves gave the lie to barbs about not being a team player. He started in typical fashion, scoring with a crisp half-volley from a Cliff Jones cross. He then drifted right, helping create the chance for John White to score.

Atlético reacted malevolently, trying to kick and impede Greaves but he stayed calm, bringing, according to Nicholson, “his Italian experience to bear, never getting flustered when the tackles were flying”. Terry Dyson delivered another pass. Greaves finished calmly. Spurs won 5-1. Glory, glory be.

Still with his thoughts for the team, Greaves looked for Mackay at the final whistle, reminding the Scot how pivotal he had been in getting Spurs to Rotterdam. Mackay admitted later how emotional he became at Greaves’ kind words and consoling arm around the shoulder. Not bad for a player once described by Charlton as “a fantastic finisher but a moderate team player”.

^{Greaves (right) in action for West Ham}

Most team-mates adore the finishers in their ranks, especially those lacking obsession with their worth. Isn’t Greaves’s most prized quality what everyone dreams of from playground to packed ground? Goals pay everyone’s wages as well as the rent.

In 1965, under pressure against the Manchester United of Charlton, Best and Denis Law, Greaves controlled the ball with his back to goal, wriggled away from a midfield of Paddy Crerand and Nobby Stiles, dribbled through a defence organised by Bill Foulkes and slipped past the ball past Pat Dunne.

Greaves’s goals were beautiful as well as vital. He subjugated the finest keepers. Such was Greaves’ hunger for goals that he did not stand on ceremony when awarded a penalty against Leicester City in 1965; he whipped the ball into the net while Gordon Banks was drying his hands on a towel. Banks’s distinguished successor at Leicester, Peter Shilton, was beaten three years later when Greaves controlled a clearance from Pat Jennings, dribbled past four opponents (and the referee), wrong-footed Shilton and scored. The finish was emphatic, the celebration modest.

^{Greaves with Bobby Moore}

But with Greaves most attention revolves around 1966, his year of “hurt”, his missing out on “the match of a lifetime” when even partying with Ramsey’s jubilant players on the pitch was inhibited by the painful reality that “deep down I felt my sadness”. Reflecting in 2010 on events at Wembley, Greaves recalled: “People think I became an alcoholic because Alf Ramsey chose Geoff ahead of me. The drinking came much later.” He found the net 96 times in the three seasons after ’66.

Few partnerships in English football can rival Greaves’s balanced blend with Alan Gilzean. He won the 1967 FA Cup and then, having scored 268 in 381 for Spurs, Greaves moved in 1970 to West Ham, where he still managed 13 in 40 before the booze kicked in. He subsequently fought off an addiction to beer and vodka. The joy Greaves brought to so many as a truly uplifting goalscorer is why so many have passionately supported him in his latest fight.