Alan Frank Kimble (born 6 August 1966) is an English football manager and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

and

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

before finishing his career with non-league sides

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

and

Heybridge Swifts Heybridge Swifts Football Club is a football club based in Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Scraley Road. History The club was established in 1880 as Heybridge Football Club. After joining t ...

. Following retirement, Kimble has worked as a manager and assistant manager within the non-league game for

Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the club competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1946 from ...

Aveley Aveley is a town and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England, and forms one of the traditional Church of England parishes. Aveley is 16 miles (26.2 km) east of Charing Cross. In the 2021 United Kingdom ...

Hemel Hempstead Town Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, they are currently members of the National League South and pla ...

, Eastbourne Borough and Maldon & Tiptree.

Playing career

Charlton Athletic

Left back Kimble started his career at Charlton Athletic alongside his twin brother,

Garry Kimble Garry Kimble (born 6 August 1966) is an English former professional Association football, footballer. Career Kimble, along with his twin brother Alan Kimble, Alan, started his career as a trainee at Charlton Athletic F.C., Charlton Athletic wh ...

. They both progressed through the youth ranks to make brief appearances in the Charlton first team before the pair of them joined

on loan and then

on free transfers in July 1986.

Cambridge United

Alan Kimble went on to play 299 games for United, scoring 24 goals, most of which came from the penalty spot. He played a pivotal part in the club's amazing success in climbing the lower leagues in the early 1990s but left following relegation from (old) Division Two in 1993 after seven years with the club.

Wimbledon

Kimble moved to Premier League side

for a fee of £175,000 and stayed there for nine years, and was a regular first team player, making 215 league appearances. While in the Wimbledon side, Kimble was known to get to the byline and lump the ball upfield to the strikers. He failed to score a league goal for the club but did net once for them against Huddersfield Town in one of his 25 League Cup games for the club. Wimbledon finished in the top ten of the Premier League three times, and were League Cup semi finalists twice and FA Cup semi finalists once while Kimble played for them, but went down from the Premier League in 2000. He finally left at the end of the 2001-02 season, around the same time that the club's controversial move to

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

- which eventually resulted in its rebranding as

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

- was announced.

Luton Town and non-League

After playing at the highest level he left Wimbledon at the end of the 2001–02 season following a brief loan spell at

and joined ex-Wimbledon manager

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (born 27 December 1946) is an Irish former football manager and player. Kinnear played as a defender, spending the majority of his career—ten seasons—with Tottenham Hotspur. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the EFL ...

. He managed only 12 games for Luton before dropping into the

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

to play for

where he played a further 22 games to leave him with a total of more than 550 games in his top class career. He later had a brief spell with

Managerial career

He invited by ex-Cambridge teammate

Liam Daish Liam Sean Daish (born 23 September 1968) is a football coach, manager and former professional player who was appointed academy manager at Birmingham City in 2022. Daish was a centre-half who played in the Football League for Portsmouth, Cambrid ...

to become assistant manager of Gravesend & Northfleet in March 2005. In the close season of 2009, due to financial difficulties at the club, Kimble was released from the club now known as Ebbsfleet United. After leaving Ebbsfleet, Kimble became manager of

Isthmian League Premier Division The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams ...

club

in May 2010, with his twin brother Garry as his assistant. After five months in the job, he left Aveley in November due to personal reasons before being replaced by

Carl Griffiths Carl Brian Griffiths (born 16 July 1971) is an English-born Welsh former footballer and manager. He started his career with Shrewsbury Town in 1988, and after being voted onto the PFA Team of the Year, moved on to Manchester City for £500,00 ...

. Kimble was assistant manager at

, before moving on to Eastbourne Borough to take on the same role in February 2012. In 2014, he became manager of Maldon & Tiptree. He left the club at the end of the 2014–15 season.Former Colchester United and Spurs man Kevin Watson is new Maldon & Tiptree boss
Essex Chronicle, 19 May 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimble, Alan 1966 births Living people English footballers Association football defenders Footballers from Dagenham Charlton Athletic F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Wimbledon F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Heybridge Swifts F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players National League (English football) players