Bobby Smith was responsible for Tottenham's double success in 1960/61

The argument

Bobby Smith's claim to be Tottenham's greatest striker is anchored in his central role in the club's defining achievement: the League and FA Cup Double of 1960-61, the first won by an English club in the twentieth century. As the powerful spearhead of that legendary side, Smith was the man who turned the team's dominance into goals, scoring prolifically through the title-winning league campaign and finding the net in the FA Cup final itself to help seal the historic Double. A feat thought all but impossible in the modern game was delivered with Smith leading the attack, and his goals were indispensable to it. The argument emphasises that he supplied exactly what a great team needs from its centre-forward at the decisive moments. A robust, combative striker who unsettled defences and combined strength with a genuine scoring instinct, Smith carried the goalscoring burden for the finest team in Tottenham's history, partnering and complementing the other greats of that side. To be the focal point of the attack in the season the club achieved what no English team had managed in sixty years is to have been responsible, more than almost anyone, for the club's greatest triumph. A striker is measured by how much his goals matter, and few goals in Tottenham's history have mattered more than those that won the Double. Smith did not merely score; he scored the goals that delivered the club's defining honour. Because Bobby Smith was responsible for Tottenham's Double success in 1960-61, this argument holds, he is the greatest striker in the club's history.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Critics reply that the 1960-61 Double was a collective achievement of an exceptional team — with Danny Blanchflower, Dave Mackay, Cliff Jones and John White all central to it — so crediting the club's greatest triumph chiefly to its centre-forward overstates one man's share. Being the striker of a great side shows Smith was part of greatness, not that he was individually the greatest striker in the club's history. They add that "greatest striker" is normally settled by sustained scoring output rather than a single trophy season. On that measure Smith trails Jimmy Greaves, whose scoring rate was extraordinary, and Harry Kane, the club's all-time leading scorer. His Double role secures his historical importance without settling the title of greatest.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The Double was won by a whole side of great players; naming Smith "responsible" for it understates the contribution of Blanchflower, Mackay, Jones and the rest. [Rejecting P3] Even granting that trophy-winning goals matter most, "greatest striker" is usually judged on career scoring output, where Smith trails Greaves and Kane.