Arsenal signed Jimmy Rimmer from Manchester United in 1974 where he had played 34 games and made 17 loan appearances with Swansea City. He was the Arseanl number 1 between 1974 and 1977, playing 124 games. He then moved on to Aston Villa and later played for Swansea City We were very sorry to hear of his passing today, aged 78.
Arsenal signed him in 1974 as a replacement for Bob Wilson, and after a season as his understudy, Jimmy became Arsenal’s first-choice keeper. He won Arsenal’s Player of The Year award in 1975.
Jimmy was eventually replaced by Pat Jennings who was signed from Tottenham Hotspur and Jimmy then moved to Aston Villa. Later in his career he became a goalkeeping coach
Our condolences to Jimmy’s family,
He had a lot to do with Arsenal’s survival in the top-flight in those difficult mid-70s transition years. RIP.
Family Enclosure Man
Indeed he did.
There is some nice stuff out there including an interview in which he said how shocked and honoured he was to be going to Arsenal, especially as at the time, not only was he 2nd choice at united, but Arsenal were repoerted to be in for Peter Shilton.
In his first season he was voted Arsenal player of the season, above, to his astonishment, Brian Kidd who was also doing very well at centre forward. He was gutted when Arsenal signed Pat Jennings, effectively putting Jimmy back on the bench, which understandably he didn’t want, which is why he left. He of course accepted why Arsenal did it. As he said “It was PAT JENNINGS”
He was extremely popular with the fans which leads me to repeat a story I have often told on here.
It was in the first half. We were defending the North Bank. Rimmer went out to the right hand side of the box to retrieve a comfortable ball. He played the ball blindly across the box to the Centre Back but had failed to notice an opposing forward lurking on the edge of the box. Ooops.
The ball was tapped into the empty net.
As Jimmy sheepishly retrieved the ball from the back of the net the North Ba\nk broke out into song:
There’s only One Jimmy Rimmer. One Jimmy Rimmer. Etc etc.
As far as I recall it was sung every time he touched the ball.
I cant remember the year, match, opponent or final score. All I remember is that it was an evening midweek match.
If anyone else can recall that night in more detail I’d love to know.
Thoughts are with his family and friends.
RIP Jimmy.