What Number Shirt Did Jimmy Greaves Wear for Tottenham
10 Great No. 10s in the History of Tottenham Hotspur
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Many of football's greatest players have worn the No. 10 shirt for club or country.
The same is true of Tottenham Hotspur.
Throughout their history, Spurs have almost always filled that shirt with players of great talent, flair and an appreciation of the club's motto: "to dare is to do."
Many of the finest players to grace the club wore No. 10.
No. 10 is also a role on the football pitch, and Spurs have had a great many of those too.
The wily playmakers with the vision and the skill to make magical moves are a joy to behold.
No Spurs team is complete without one.
For that reason, this list is composed of great players who wore the No. 10 shirt and stars who shone in the role to which it lends its name.
Jimmy Greaves
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Perhaps the greatest player to have worn any number for Spurs, Jimmy Greaves' astonishing goalscoring rate speaks for itself.
268 goals for the club and a further 33 for England while a Tottenham player, there has never been a goalscorer like Greaves.
To put his exploits into perspective, Harry Kane's remarkable season would have been just Greaves' fifth-most prolific. He is Tottenham's all-time leading goalscorer and is Chelsea's fifth-highest despite playing at Stamford Bridge for just four seasons.
Most Spurs fans are left to salivate over the YouTube clips of Greaves in full flight.
Few who saw him play would put another Tottenham player ahead of him.
Robbie Keane
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The first No. 10 for many younger Tottenham fans, Robbie Keane was a ray of light in some less than stellar teams.
As the club grew around him, Keane developed into a well-rounded striker and eventually formed one of the great Tottenham strike partnerships with Dimitar Berbatov.
Keane's consistency helped Spurs break out of a two decades-long slumber and regain their place among England's elite.
His later years, eventual departure to MLS and subsequent loan move to West Ham United have tarnished his legacy somewhat, but Keane is one of the greatest Tottenham players of the Premier League era.
The astonishing curling equaliser he scored against Chelsea in the 4-4 in March 2008, his genuinely moving reaction at Wembley after beating the same side in the League Cup final a few weeks earlier and his trademark cartwheel celebrations are just a few of his great moments in Spurs' No. 10 shirt.
Gary Lineker
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If any player could challenge Jimmy Greaves' mantle as the smoothest goalscorer in Spurs history, it would be Gary Lineker.
Watching Lineker was a joy.
He was a pure scorer of goals—never hurried, and always in position.
Joining the club from Barcelona, expectations were high.
Lineker only played at White Hart Lane for three seasons, but they were certainly memorable.
Eighty goals in 138 games is simply astonishing. His exploits as an England player and obvious affection for Spurs post-retirement have only helped Lineker's legend to grow.
If pure numbers don't convince, Lineker's brace in the 3-1 FA Cup semi-final victory over Arsenal in 1991 are enough to push him intoimmortality.
Teddy Sheringham
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One of Tottenham's best signings, Teddy Sheringham joined the club from Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest for just £2.1 million in 1992.
He scored 100 goals in his first spell with the club before the allure of Manchester United took him north.
The departure was an unpopular one, and it sparked one of the great terrace songs. However, a couple of seasons after winning the treble with United, Sheringham came home to north London.
In his second stint with the club, Teddy scored 26 goals.
His typically entertaining style was a crutch that helped many Spurs fans survive a turgid period in the club's history.
Goalscoring exploits and an earnest yet enigmatic style earned him the love of many, and he is a worthy member of this list.
Sheringham never won any trophies at Spurs, but he certainly won the admiration of the club's faithful.
Martin Peters
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World Cup-winning midfielder Martin Peters was signed from West Ham as the most expensive player in English football history.
If that wasn't pressure enough, his transfer also saw the departure of the legendary Jimmy Greaves.
Peters did not have the same level of talent around him as Greaves, but he amassed 287 appearances, spearheading the autumn of Spurs' golden age.
A key man in UEFA Cup victory in 1972, Peters also won two League Cups.
Sadly, Peters was unable to guide his team past Feyenoord in a 1974 UEFA Cup final infamously marred by fan violence.
The bridge between the double team of 1961 and the end of Bill Nicholson's time as manager in 1974, Peters is sometimes overlooked despite his key role in the club's history.
His goals, the trophies he won and his heroism in Europe mark him out as a Tottenham legend and an iconic No. 10.
Luka Modric
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Luka Modric never wore the No. 10 shirt at Tottenham, preferring 14 as a tribute to Johan Cruyff, reported by the Sunday Times.
He also played a lot of his football for Spurs wide on the left and in deeper roles, but he gave some truly brilliant performances in the No. 10 role.
No player to have graced the Lilywhite shirt in recent years has possessed the combination of vision and technique of Modric.
He is a player who has everything.
Capable of an impossibly tight weaving run, a defence-splitting pass and even the occasional screaming shot, Modric was the perfect Premier League No. 10.
In his bookInverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson described Modric as the first of the modern playmakers. He certainly has played that role regularly for Croatia, for whom he does wear the No. 10, as he sometimes did for Spurs.
That he is primarily now known as a central midfielder speaks to his rounded qualities, but he was an excellent No. 10 for Tottenham and lifted the players around him.
Paul Gascoigne
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Paul Gascoigne was a fantasy player of the best kind.
Capable of every conceivable skill, perhaps some the crowds couldn't even imagine, Gascoigne was a purely distilled football.
Everything done with a flourish, instilled with passion and tinged with his uniquely infectious enthusiasm, Gascoigne was truly one of a kind.
He is also one of the greatest players to have played for Spurs and, arguably, their first pure No. 10.
The beating heart of the 1991 FA Cup-winning side, Gascoigne wrenched his team to the final, only to tragically injure his knee in the opening exchanges of the showpiece.
That Gascoigne has gone on to become something of a tragic figure is a betrayal of the brilliance he once possessed.
His runs were baffling. His goals were a combination of power and intelligence and marked him out as a truly special player.
Gascoigne's final campaign in the white of Tottenham was among the finest individual seasons ever seen at the club.
No list of Tottenham No. 10s would be complete without him.
Christian Eriksen
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The man that currently occupies the No. 10 shirt at Tottenham is Emmanuel Adebayor, but Christian Eriksen is the player who fills the role.
Eriksen is a perfect playmaker and demonstrated his qualities through most of last season.
Match-winning goals from free-kicks and open play became almost routine for the little Dane, who more than disproved his doubters in a second season in England.
Eriksen sees the game faster than those around him and moves quickly to take advantage of that.
His willingness to take the ball into dangerous areas reflects the bravery playmakers must possess.
The fact that he tired badly toward the end of last season has clouded the judgments of some, but Eriksen is certainly deserving of a place on this list.
Still only 23 years old, Eriksen is named among these legendary figures partially because of what he has ahead of him.
Having reached such heights already, Eriksen's future is bright indeed.
Glenn Hoddle
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Before Harry Kane, Tottenham had another golden boy in Glenn Hoddle.
Hoddle's first full season saw Spurs relegated to the Second Division, but the team was rebuilt around him and the local boy took full advantage.
He scored 12 goals that season, either side of his 21st birthday.
The precocious talent continued to blossom after Spurs returned to the top flight, and he eventually enjoyed 11 consecutive seasons as a first-choice midfielder.
Along with a pair of pretty handy Argentinians, he formed the basis of the great Spurs side of the 1980s.
His final season at Spurs is one of the great what-ifs in the club's history.
They finished third in the league and were beaten semi-finalists in both the League Cup and FA Cup.
Had just a few moments gone their way, they could have won a treble.
Hoddle played in an era when the No. 10, as we understand it today, was still emerging. In English football, it was virtually unheard of to place a player in that exact position, but Hoddle naturally occupied the role regardless.
The first of his kind, Hoddle was unappreciated in England. His eventual move to Monaco saw him score 30 goals in a little over two seasons, as he was encouraged to follow his natural instincts.
It has often been said that Hoddle played in the wrong era, but he remains a beloved figure at White Hart Lane for his routinely astonishing performances.
Rafael van der Vaart
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Rafael van der Vaart added a swagger to Harry Redknapp's Tottenham side.
He possessed the brilliance and the flaws of many of the great Dutch playmakers.
Astonishing in possession but rather useless without the ball, Redknapp was forced to tinker to get the best out of him, but he was certainly worth it.
Joining a team that had reached the Champions League but had no experience of it, Van der Vaart was an experienced hand.
A born winner, the Dutchman played key roles in famous Spurs triumphs.
His goal against reigning European champions Inter Milan and his momentous penalty at the Emirates Stadium in the 3-2 comeback victory in November 2010 number among his moments of genius.
His series of nutmegs on the ever-chirpy Jack Wilshere is another fan favourite.
Van der Vaart was the classic No. 10, although he wore 11 for the majority of his Spurs career—only sporting No. 10 for a few games before rejoining Hamburg in 2012.
He played some of his best football for Spurs and deservedly caps off this list.
What Number Shirt Did Jimmy Greaves Wear for Tottenham
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2505922-10-great-no-10s-in-the-history-of-tottenham-hotspur
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