In terms of international goals he stands fourth in England’s all-time list with 44, behind Wayne Rooney on 53, Bobby Charlton on 49, and Gary Lineker on 48.

But Greaves reached that total in just 57 matches, less than half of the games played by Rooney, who won 120 caps. Charlton played 106 times for England. Lineker earned 80 caps.

Doing the maths - Greaves effectively tops the England list with an average of 0.77 goals per game, followed by Lineker on 0.6, Charlton on 0.46 and Rooney on 0.44.

In terms of club goals - Greaves scored 357 times in the First Division, a record for the top-flight in England. He is also Tottenham Hotspur’s highest scorer with 266 goals.

Another stat. Greaves scored on his debut for England and all his major clubs - Chelsea, Milan, Tottenham and West Ham United.

So much for the stats, although they are indeed much. It was the manner of his scoring that made Greaves truly immortal in the game. And it was this that was marked in ceremonies ahead of several Premier League games yesterday, including the one between two of his previous clubs, Spurs and Chelsea.

My erstwhile colleague and award-winning writer Ian Ridley tweeted yesterday an observation made by Lineker about goalscorers: "He once said there were slashers and strokers in front of goal. Jimmy was the stroker supreme."

Ridley, by the by, had a big part in mobilising support for Greaves to receive, in 2009, a World Cup winner’s medal, having played in the first three matches of England’s 1966 campaign.

There was a strong irony here, however. One of the defining features of Greaves’s career was the fact that, despite being his country’s highest-prized goalscorer, he did not play in the 1966 World Cup final, having suffered a gashed shin in the third group match against France and failed to regain his place in the team.

A photo taken of him after that match against the French, despondent, with his bandaged leg suspended above the water in a dressing room bath, was a presaging image of what was - not - to come.

After his effective replacement, Geoff Hurst, had completed a hat-trick in the last seconds of the final, giving England a 4-2 extra-time win over West Germany, there is further poignant footage of a suited Greaves, stern-faced, somewhat mechanically raising both his hands to mark the victory before striding onto the turf he had longed to inhabit on that day of days and congratulating his delirious team-mates…

While I did once have the privilege of seeing Greaves play - in a 3-1 pre-season friendly win against Rangers at White Hart Lane in March 1968 – my own strongest memories of him were when he arrived to reinvigorate West Ham’s struggle to avoid relegation from the First Division in the 1969-1970 season, as part of a move which saw Martin Peters move to Spurs.

Greaves’s first appearance was in a First Division match against Manchester City on a Maine Road pitch slick with mud and rain that stilted play and put a premium on precision passing. Just up West Ham’s street, in fact.

One of the main questions being asked before the game - would Greaves be able to maintain his extraordinary run of debut goals?

Within ten minutes the footballing world had its answer: yes.

Pat Holland crossed low from the right after City had been caught on the break and as the desperately covering home skipper Tony Book flailed into his eyeline and the huge form of keeper Joe Corrigan raced out at him Greaves, perfectly balanced in the mire, dabbed the ball home with his left foot.

After Francis Lee had scored a soft equaliser from distance, it was Greaves who once again arrived - as ever, right place, right time - to resolve a slithering goalmouth melee with another single touch of that left boot. 2-1.

Thus bolstered, his new team-mates went on to complete a 5-1 victory that is still among the most cherished in the club’s history.

As with so many of Greaves’s goals, the ball had sidled into the net amidst the general hue and cry - like a spy leaving a busy square.

While all about him strove and stretched he was always the still centre of the storm, scoring goals that had the inevitability of an action replay.

One of Greaves’s most celebrated international displays came in the 9-3 rout of Scotland at Wembley in 1961, where he got a hat-trick. His second was the same kind of goal as he scored at Maine Road nine years later - arriving at precisely the right moment to convert penalty area chaos into order with one tap of his left foot.

It was his third goal, however, that showcased all his intrinsic talents as he dribbled past two Scottish defenders before darting the ball left-footed past the oncoming keeper in the manner of a picador.

It was the quintessential Greaves goal.

But then there was his goal against league champions Manchester United in October 1965 when he received the ball with his back to goal, turned his marker, held off one man, skipped a sliding tackle, tacked clear of the diving keeper and rolled the ball over the line from the right-hand side.

Or the one against Newcastle United at White Hart Lane in 1969, when he ran half the length of the field before rounding centre half Ollie Burton and then keeper Willie McFaul in the manner of a slalom racer before tapping the ball into the net from virtually the same distance and angle as he had for his Manchester United goal.

And then, and then….the memories of how this mesmeriser managed the ball into the net roll on and on.

Greaves himself nominated as his best goal a volley he scored while playing non-league football for Barnet towards the end of his career.

At that time he was battling to escape from the alcoholism into which he had slipped after leaving West Ham at the end of the 1970-1971 season.

The story of how he so admirably became sober and established himself in a broadcasting and journalistic career, notably in partnership with former Liverpool and Scotland forward Ian St John in ITV’s long-running football feature Saint and Greavsie, has been well told.

Those who knew him, and even those who knew him slightly, valued him as a warm and funny family man. But the thing that should, and always will be remembered about Jimmy Greaves is that he was probably the best goalscorer who ever lived.