Denis Law serves as a reminder that broadcasters must NOT airbrush football history, writes OLIVER HOLT - today's heroes should aspire to reach the heights of the kings of the past
Denis Law serves as a reminder that broadcasters must NOT airbrush football history, writes OLIVER HOLT - today's heroes should aspire to reach the heights of the kings of the past
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Denis Law was the kind of football hero that our broadcasters encourage us to forget when they take a brush and slather wide swathes of paint over the great players of the past and tell us that nothing of worth existed before the Premier League and English football’s Year Zero of 1992.
![[Law (right) alongside Sir Bobby Charlton (middle) and George Best (left) were an electric trio of world class talent together at United]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/21/94249203-14300515-image-a-35_1737236806535.jpg)
When news emerged on Friday, a few hours before Law’s death was announced, that Erling Haaland had signed a new nine-year deal at Manchester City, some of the talk centred around how much more likely it now was that the Norway striker would break ‘Alan Shearer’s record’.
![[Law, Best and Charlton will forever be immortalised at Old Trafford with the United Trinity statue]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/21/94249221-14300515-image-a-36_1737236838190.jpg)
It actually took Shearer, a magnificent centre forward who scored 283 top-flight goals, not 260, to point out what seems to have become an inconvenient truth for many outlets. ‘There were great goalscorers before I was born who have incredible records as well,’ Shearer reminded us.
![[Law (left) and Charlton (right) alongside Cristiano Ronaldo as he won his first Ballon d'Or award at Man United]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/21/94249213-14300515-image-a-37_1737236843294.jpg)
It was typical of Shearer that he should point that out. He has always exuded respect for greats of the past and it is about time we stopped this silly charade of airbrushing the achievements of men like Law, Jimmy Greaves and Dixie Dean out of the conversation just because they do not fit broadcasters’ agendas.
![[Alan Shearer holds the record for the most Premier League goals but some of the greats before the competition began in 1992 have records that exceed even his]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/22/94249877-14300515-image-m-25_1737238761061.jpg)
So let’s be straight about it: the record that Haaland is chasing is not Shearer’s record of 260 Premier League goals because that is, essentially, a false construct. The record any goalscorer playing in our top flight should be chasing is the 357 league goals scored by Jimmy Greaves.
![[Law was flamboyant, he was elegant, he was impudent, he was a genius with the ball at his feet]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/21/94249275-14300515-image-a-42_1737237199017.jpg)
If broadcasters don’t want to talk about that, maybe it is because they worry that it demeans the product they are selling to today’s fans. Maybe they worry that the truth is that some — not all — of the players they lionise now couldn’t hold a candle to the kings of the past.
![[Erling Haaland signed a new nine-year contract at Manchester City hours before Law's death was announced]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/18/22/94249883-14300515-image-a-26_1737238767927.jpg)
