Jimmy Rimmer believed the 1982 European Cup final would be his finest hour, but unknown Nigel Spink instead went down in folklore – as both men recall that night to MATT BARLOW
Jimmy Rimmer reaches out a hand and apologises for the state of his grip. ‘Like the hands you see in horror films,’ he says drily, running a finger along some of the artificial joints.
‘It’s not pretty is it? That’s plastic in there, and that, and that’s been frozen,’ explains the 76-year-old former Manchester United, Arsenal and Aston Villa goalkeeper. ‘At least I’m still alive,’ he laughs. ‘They only gave me two days to live, you know.’
This seems like a good place to start. Rimmer was living in Vancouver when he suffered a heart attack, collapsing as he climbed out of his Jeep on a routine trip to the bank.
Hospital staff told his three children they would keep him alive on life support machine until they had a chance to fly to Canada and bid their father farewell but, by the time they landed, there were signs of life.
‘Eleven days in a coma and just like that I came out,’ recalls Rimmer. ‘People ask me what it was like. All I know is it was dark.’
Ex-Aston Villa goalkeepers Jimmy Rimmer (left) and Nigel Spink (right) hold the European Cup
Rimmer (left) was substituted for Spink (right) just 10 minutes into the 1982 European Cup final
Rimmer (left) had suffered an injury before the game that saw him leave the pitch 10 minutes in
Sixteen years later, he is enjoying a pint in a bustling pub on the outskirts of Swansea retracing the twists of his brilliant if underappreciated career.
‘I played for the best club in the north, the best in the south, the best in the Midlands and the best in Wales,’ he likes to say, but he never cared to boast much at the time.
He comes from the strong and silent mould, much like his mentor Harry Gregg, the Manchester United and Northern Ireland goalkeeper and reluctant hero of the Munich disaster.
Towards the end of his playing career at Old Trafford, Gregg dispensed sagely advice and coaching tips to young ‘keepers competing to be his permanent successor.
‘Catch the ball, get some shape in your hands, Harry would tell us. Cover your near post. They’re not so good at the near post these days.’
Rimmer came through the ranks with George Best, David Sadler and John Aston. Together they were Youth Cup winners in 1964 and European champions within four years.
Among his fondest memories of United’s triumph against Benfica, when he was an unused substitute at Wembley Stadium, is the celebration banquet when he and Best sat together with their parents.
It was Gregg who convinced him a loan move into Division Four with Swansea was a good idea, and who told Arsenal scout Gordon Clark to sign him in April 1974.
Ex-Man United goalkeeper Harry Gregg would impart knowledge to up-and-coming players
Gregg (left) apparently convinced Rimmer that a loan move to join Swansea was a good idea
Rimmer’s Arsenal debut came in a 1-0 win at Liverpool and accused Alan Ball of a wind-up as he was offered a choice of prawn cocktail or smoked salmon on the bus journey home.
‘I said, “what do you mean?” At Man United the bus driver would go and get fish and chips and there’s two fellas asking me what starter I’d like, whether I want steak or chicken and red or white wine.
‘I’m looking at Bally because we’re playing bridge and I’m the new one, and I think they’re taking the p*** here but they weren’t. No more driving to the chip shop. That’s why they’re call The Arsenal. It’s nothing but the best. And I’d come from Man United.’
Rimmer grew in stature when Bob Wilson retired at the end of that season and, once elevated to number one, missed only three games in three years.
There came England recognition albeit only one cap, against Italy in 1976, and he remembers coming in at number 20 when Gordon Banks ranked the world’s top goalkeepers in a newspaper column.
‘I was over the moon,’ says Rimmer. ‘People told me how good I was but I didn’t always realise. I was very shy and quiet at one time. I’d go into my own world when I made a mistake. Harry Gregg would say, “Oh you’re the only one who ever made a mistake are you”.
‘We all make mistakes. I used to hold them in and think about them for too long. You can’t go around telling people about all the great saves you made.
Rimmer (third from front) had played in teams with Bobby Charlton (front) and George Best (second from front)
Rimmer ranked in the world’s top 20 goalkeepers when Gordon Banks (pictured) was the best
‘I hate to say it but I could sit here happy in my own company. I could sit here and have a beer and people would think I wasn’t happy. They’d say, “that quiet fella in the corner used to be famous.”‘
Perhaps the perception is enhanced events of the European Cup final in 1982.
It ought to have been Rimmer’s finest hour but turned out be one of football’s cruellest twists of fate.
He had rejected a new deal at Arsenal and an offer to join Ipswich Town to sign for Aston Villa, where he thrived under Ron Saunders. They got along, played a lot of golf together, and shared an outlook. Men of action, not liable to waste words.
Rimmer missed only one game in five years as Villa won the title for the only time in the last 114 years, and then forged into Europe, reaching the final with seven clean sheets in eight games.
His heroics against Dynamo Berlin have gone down as one of his finest displays.
In the final league game of the season, however, just five days before the final against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, he came out for a cross, caught it, collided with Bob Latchford of Swansea, spun over and crashed down onto the back of his neck.
‘Next day my shoulder was terrible,’ says Rimmer. ‘The doctor wasn’t sure the jabs would work but Tony Barton wanted me to play so we tried to make sure nobody knew.
‘I had injections in my neck and my shoulder. Cortisone takes pain away but eight or nine minutes into the game, I knew there was no chance. You’ve got to have a goalkeeper who can make saves. I couldn’t lift my arm.
‘You’ve got to be a man, there was a decision to make. I had to make it as a senior player. I could’ve stayed on. We’d worked hard to get there and we wanted to win. It’s a team game not Jimmy Rimmer’s game. I cried in the dressing room.
‘The good thing was that I think I made the right decision. The lad came on and was magnificent. Full credit to him.’
Despite Rimmer’s absence, Aston Villa went on to win the 1982 European Cup final
Peter Withe scored the only goal of the game against Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich
Villa captain Dennis Mortimer hoisted the trophy high into the air after the 1-0 victory
Nigel Spink had joined Villa as a teenager from non-league Chelmsford City, at first as an understudy to John Burridge, then to Rimmer when he arrived from Arsenal, six months later.
He waited almost three years for his debut, a defeat at Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day 1979 and another two-and-a-half for his second appearance, when Rimmer trudged off in the European Cup final.
‘Jimmy was so consistent he never missed a game and my education came from watching him train and play,’ recalls 65-year-old Spink. ‘He had spent two years winning the league and getting us to the final of the European Cup and then missed the real cherry on top.
Spink made his second senior appearance for Aston Villa during the European Cup final
‘I felt for him in that situation. Almost guilty when the dust settled. He hadn’t been able to play in a final he deserved to play in.’
As he went on, Spink turned the bench and said, ‘I hope my Mum’s got the telly on’. In fact, she had, and her son rose to the occasion with outstanding performance. Villa kept another clean sheet and won 1-0, the goal by Peter Withe.
‘The basis of my performance was hundreds of reserve games for Villa over a five-year period so I carried on as if it was a reserve game and was able to deal with what the Germans threw at me.
‘A couple of saves built confidence and then, just as I’m starting to feel good, Karlheinz Rummenigge did this amazing overhead kick that shaved the outside of the post. As Gordon Cowans ran past me to pick the ball up I said to him, “I’m not sure I’m meant to be here”.’
It was a life-changing night for Spink as he kept Bayern at bay.
‘When I ran on the pitch in Rotterdam, I doubt even the Villa supporters knew who I was. I’d never played. Only the real fanatics would’ve known my name. When we got back, everywhere I went I got recognised. Certainly around Birmingham. People just wanted to buy you drinks and were happy for you.’
Spink took the European Cup to his native Essex where his parents threw a garden party with the trophy sitting proudly on the front lawn for neighbours to come by and pose for photos. ‘There were kids sitting in it, can you imagine that now?’
Spink (right) said that he had ‘felt for Jimmy in that situation’ after he had been substituted
The goalkeeper (left) said he treated the final ‘like a reserves match’ and had made a few saves that built up his confidence
Villa did manage to lose the trophy while it was in their possession. ‘It went missing from Lions Club fans’ night and, so the story goes, was handed in at Sheffield police station,’ says Spink.
Rimmer, only the second player after Saul Malatrasi of Milan and Inter, to win the European Cup with different clubs, was restored to the Villa team at the start of the following season but had signed for Swansea by the end.
Spink took over as number one and held the position for many years, making 460 appearances before moving to West Bromwich Albion. Like Rimmer, he won one England cap, against Australia in Melbourne.
His last Villa game came as a substitute in midfield at Queens Park Rangers, on a day when Lee Hendrie was sent off on his debut, and his favourite Villa Park memories come from European games.
Beating Barcelona to claim the Super Cup in January 1983 and the home leg of a European Cup quarter-final against Juventus, two months later, when Spink waited in vain for Dino Zoff’s shirt.
‘I sent my jersey into their dressing room and after about an hour standing around outside I knocked on the door and asked for Zoff’s jersey,’ says Spink. ‘The kitman went back in and came out with a new jersey, still in the packet. That was a bit disappointing.’
Although there is a happier tale of swapped shirts from Spink, who brought the shirt of Bayern goalkeeper Manfred Muller back from Rotterdam and over time came to wish he still had his own.
Spink recounted how he was able to obtain his original jersey from the 1982 final (pictured) from Bayern Munich’s club museum
When he contacted Bayern’s museum to ask if they wanted Muller’s shirt back, he discovered they were in possession of his original from 1982 and were more than happy to swap back.
Spink and his wife called in at Munich on his way back from a skiing holiday in Austria. ‘They treated us like Gods,’ he says. ‘They treated us better than Villa do. I think Bayern have more respect for our achievement than Villa.
‘They came out with this presentation box, lined with tissue paper and there was my shirt folded neatly with half a dozen pictures from the night from their archives on top.
‘My wife kicked me under the table because Manfred’s shirt was in a crumpled Sainsbury’s carrier bag. I apologised but they didn’t seem to mind, and we had a chuckle.
‘It was emotional to see my shirt again. There was no chance of me getting it on but my daughter pulled it on and posed for some photographs. I loved that Le Coq Sportif strip. That jersey is my favourite out of all the ones ever I wore for Villa.’
He said it was ’emotional’ to see his Cup final shirt again, adding it was ‘his favourite Villa top’
Members of the 1982 European Cup winning team were given a guard of honour as Villa celebrated the 40th anniversary of their triumph back in 2022
Rimmer is not one for undue sentiment. He finished playing at Swansea, where he started coaching and had two spells as caretaker manager before moving to China.
‘I went for three months and stayed for years,’ he says of his time coaching the goalkeepers in the Chinese national team and later Dalian Wanda, who became Dalian Shide. ‘If they like you, you’ll stay there a long time. If they don’t like you, they’ll give you great money and say goodbye.’
For much of that time, he lived rent-free in a penthouse suite of the Shangri-La in Beijing. ‘The first thing I learned to respect their culture. That’s why I think I lasted.’
Eventually, Rimmer left China for Canada and returned to South Wales after his heart attack to be closer to his son David, the source of what he calls his only footballing regret, when he decided against offering him a scholarship during his time as Swansea’s youth team manager.
‘He was a centre-half with great feet,’ says Rimmer. ‘I decided to keep a spot spare in case we found someone else. I should have given my son that position. It was my mistake.’
Unai Emery’s side are now one win away from their first European Cup final since 1982
Both Spink and Rimmer will also know that goalkeeper Emi Martinez is struggling with an injury
David joined Walsall, then Birmingham City but missed home and was soon back in Swansea, where he played amateur football including a long spell at Garden Village, where he has recently been manager before stepping aside to focus on his courier business.
Rimmer senior often be spotted following the Swans, a regular at games and an occasional speaker in their match-day lounges. He rarely makes it to Aston Villa but supporters all his former clubs from afar.
It will not have escaped him or Spink that Villa are one win from their first European final since 1982 and the established first-choice goalkeeper Emi Martinez is struggling with an injury.
