A joint 70th birthday party for Squint and Greavsie

On February 20th, 1940 a baby boy was delivered in London and named James Peter Greaves. Four days later in Aberdeen, another baby boy arrived into this world to Mrs Robina Law and was christened Denis. The boys were to become arguably the greatest goalscorers to wear the English and Scottish jerseys, with astonishing full international strike rates of 77 and 55 per cent respectively.Jimmy Greaves was a phenomenal striker, scoring on his debut for Chelsea in 1957. He finished as top league goalscorer twice whilst at Chelsea, in 1959 and 1961, and his 41 league goals in the 1960/61 season remains a club record. He briefly joined AC Milan in 1961, but failure to settle in Italy in those less cosmopolitan times led to a quick departure. Bill Nicholson then signed him for Tottenham Hotspur for £99,999 (the unusual fee was intended to relieve Greaves of the pressure of being the first £100,000 player). Greaves enjoyed a legendary career at Tottenham and he topped the Division One goalscorers chart four times (1963, 1964, 1965 and 1969). In 1970, Greaves joined West Ham United in part-exchange in the deal that took Martin Peters to White Hart Lane. He scored on his debut, (as he had for every team he played for, including England at full and under-21 level), with two goals against Manchester City. Always on hand with a quip, years later I recall him being asked as to where he considered he played his best football and Greaves replied: "If you ask Chelsea fans, they'll say 'Chelsea'. If you ask Spurs fans, they'll say 'Spurs'. If you ask West Ham fans, they'll say 'either Chelsea or Spurs'.Greaves won his first England cap on May 17th, 1959 against Peru, scoring England's only goal in a 4-1 defeat. He went on to play 57 times and score 44 goals. Greaves was the first-choice striker for the England team during the 1966 World Cup but suffered a leg injury during the game against France and had to be replaced. That replacement, one Geoff Hurst scored the winner in the quarter-final against Argentina and kept his place all the way to the final, famously scoring a hat-trick as England won the tournament. One of football's most famous photographs shows the elation on the England bench as the final whistle was blown, except for Greaves, in his suit and tie, looking astonished at what had happened. Greaves played only three more times for England after the 1966 World Cup, scoring a single goal. His final cap came against Austria in May 1967.In the mid-1970s Greaves battled a well-documented alcohol problem, finally quitting drinking in February 1978. Even in relation to that very serious subject, Greaves could see the funny side. I remember Des O'Connor asking him to articulate just how bad his drinking was and he responded: "Well, when I was playing for Milan, we had a game in Pisa one day and the tower looked fine to me!" Greaves became a popular television presenter in his own right, striking up a memorable 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.As a 14-year-old, Denis Law was spotted by Archie Beattie, a scout for Huddersfield Town, who invited him to go for a trial . When he got there, the manager said: "The boy's a freak. Never did I see a less likely football prospect - weak, puny and bespectacled." However, to Law's surprise, they signed him and while he was at Huddersfield, he had an operation to correct his squint, which greatly enhanced his self-confidence. In March 1960, Law signed for Manchester City for what was then a British record transfer fee of £55,000, although his share of the fee was "precisely nothing".Law was sold to the Italian club Torino in the summer of 1961 but his time in Italy did not go according to plan, for a variety of reasons. He returned to Manchester in July 1962, this time to the red side (there was no 'Welcome to Manchester' billboard outside Old Trafford, a la Carlos Tevez last year) for a new British record fee of £115,000. In 1964/65, Law won the European Footballer of the Year award and Manchester United won their first league title since Munich. Law's 28 league goals that season made him the First Division's top scorer. In 1968, United won the European Cup for the first time, but Law's knee was causing him serious injury problems and he missed both the semi-final and the final as a result.Life under Matt Busby's successors (Wilf McGuinness, Frank O'Farrell and Tommy Docherty) did not run smoothly for an ageing United side and Docherty gave Law a free transfer in the summer of 1973 and he moved back to Manchester City. In City's last game of the 1973/74 season against United at Old Trafford, Law's back-heel gave City a 1-0 win but, thinking his goal had relegated United, he did not celebrate it. Another famous football photo shows Law walking off the pitch with his head down as he was substituted immediately afterwards.Law was not picked to play for Scotland in the 1958 World Cup, but scored on his debut against Wales on October 18th, 1958 and quickly established himself as a first-choice player. He played but did not score in Scotland's match against England on April 15th, 1961. Scotland lost the match 9-3, and Law described it as his "blackest day". Six years later, he gained some compensation when, in boxing tradition, Scotland declared themselves 'world champions' after a famous 3-2 victory over England in the 1967 Home Championship, less than a year after England had won the Jules Rimet trophy.Scotland reached the World Cup finals in the summer of 1974, for the first time since 1958. Although he had not played much first team football in the preceding season, Law was included in the squad and played in their first match, against Zaire. He didn't score, but Scotland won 2-0. Law was "very disappointed" not to be picked for the following match against Brazil and was not selected for the last match against Yugoslavia either. Although Scotland were not defeated in any of their matches, they did not qualify for the second phase and were out of the World Cup. Overall, he netted 30 goals in 55 full international appearances. Since his career ended, Law has often worked on radio and television summarising and presenting games.Quite apart from the age thing, Messrs Greaves and Law share other coincidences - the failed Italian experience and missing out on the big Wembley finals being the most obvious. However, for this starry-eyed youngster in the 1960s, their greatest similarity was that I worshipped them both! I hope there is law, but no disorder, at their 70th birthday parties.