If you’re an Ipswich Town supporter, in order to look on the bright side of life you have to retreat into the Twentieth Century. They did something so stunningly right back in the day that we as Norwich City have yet to emulate and I don’t mean fluking an FA Cup win.
They signed two [c’mon you have to acknowledge it] magnificent Dutch players as in Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen. And all for Monty Python’s kiss on the bum and a packet of wine gums. Fair play to them in that instance at least.
But when we dipped into the Dutch market how well did we fare? Not as well as the boys down the A140 I’m afraid as I shall illustrate.
The first one I can remember is full-back Dennis van Wijk, of Milk Cup final handball infamy. Sunderland’s Clive Walker stuffed up the penalty so Dennis largely got away with it. Well, totally got away with it tbh. He was okay. Nothing more than that but still okay.
As regular MFW readers will know I’m too lazy to set out a dissertation-style ordered approach so these are random recollections that will follow in no particular chronological order.
I’ll begin with the pits, the nadir, the descent into Hades with no coin under your tongue to pay Charon the ferryman.
The not-so-Greek tragedy here involves Bryan Hamilton, Raymond de Waard and Fernando Derveld. Apparently Hamilton signed them both from video showreels. God knows what was on the video clips but whatever it might have been never appeared on the pitch. Disastrous.
So I’ll move on to Jurgen Colin. Emerging in the Peter the Pointer Grant era he somehow contrived to lose the right back spot to Andy Hughes. I think we tried him at centre-back in a game we lost 2-0 or 3-0 to somebody I’ve conveniently forgotten. He featured in the only game I’ve ever watched from the Snakepit and he was certainly not on the receiving end of any positive comments, to put it mildly.
Then there was Mitchell Dijks, a loanee from Ajax in 2017. A left-back who was a tall lad and pretty sound but it never became a perm. Apparently he’s now with Bologna and doing well. Wiki tells me he scored a header for us against Wigan but I don’t remember it to be honest.
We all know where this one is going so I’d best get on with it.
Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
A Chris Hughton signing on a pre-nup and there was a lot of talk at the time about would he still sign from Sporting Lisbon if we were relegated. We weren’t relegated and the maths said that we finished 11th rather than 15th. Enter Ricky.
He simply didn’t suit Hughton’s lack of style. That awkward headed goal against Everton was the precursor of………… nothing. Why we signed him I will never know and he was dropped, loaned out and basically discarded.
He’s had a terrible, life-threatening recent personal injury history but seems to be fine with FC Basel just now. Good for him.
Ricky was so happy to be in Norwich that he bought his then girlfriend [maybe now his wife] an English-registered car. When he was out injured with a stubbed toe, my friend asked him about it. Keith received an icy but nonetheless pleasant stare to be told: “The problem is not in my foot. It is in my head”. Or words to that effect anyway.
On a brighter note the Netherlands isn’t really as well known for its fine beers as, say, Belgium.
But I did have the pleasure of working alongside [at a social distance] our Director’s secretary Pam, who was previously a promo girl for Oranjeboom – she was in a couple of their dreadful TV ads in the late 1980s and it took quite a few glasses of Chardonnay or something to get her to fess up.
And my most memorable moment on a 5-a-side pitch came during said company’s international tournament at the well-known Pitz Centre in Liverpool when I somehow managed to push a shot from BASF Nederland’s striker around the post with a strong old lefty. The ref said to me: “Well done mate you’ve won the game” and blew the whistle.
I played in a Norwich & Peterborough goalkeeper top. We lost the semi-final.
As I often say, with this type of article I might have left somebody out deliberately but in this case I haven’t. Although if you know somebody who sports personalised keeper gloves with TK emblazoned on the wristbands thereof feel free to make me aware of your views.
Any additions to my list of folks from the Lowlands please let me know.
I know she never played for us, but Queen Juliana of the Netherlands used provide every member of the crew of Shell tankers with a four-pack of beer every month. She was a major shareholder in Shell, so she could afford it, but her generous gesture was appreciated.
Maybe that mystery person with TK on his gloves can have a word with the current Queen (he must know her, it’s only a small country) and see if she’s interested in investing in NCFC. Although the way oil prices are going at the moment, that may not be worth very much!
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Hi Jim.
Yeah Queen Juliana was well respected for sure. Not everybody realises that Shell has Dutch origins.
Juliana was a bit like our own Queen Mary who every Christmas during WWI used to send out ration tins to the troops – chocolate, boiled sweets and a 1/4 ounce of tobacco amongst other things were in the box.
My grandad Bert didn’t smoke and brought one of his tobacco pouches back. My dad gave it to me shortly before he died. No tin but even the tobacco had Queen Mary’s crest on it.
9o years later what was I to do with it? I put it on Ebay and some guy from Texas paid £45 for it. I gave Bert’s medals and indeed dad’s to my son in case they “got lost” during a household move. And loads of other wartime family memorabilia too for the same reason.
I’ve no idea how the Dutch Royal Family became involved in the petrochemical industry but that’s very much by the by.
Cheers for picking up on Timmy Krul.
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They also owned KLM till Air France out bid BA to take them over
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I didn’t know that but KLM were/still are [dunno] a major player at Norwich “International” Airport.
One of Sue’s sons did work experience with them back in the day and reckoned the KLM tarmac folks were absolutely fantastic with him in that he learned some relevant sparky stuff rather than being used as a skivvy like so many work experience kids were.
25 years ago?.
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Well I’m sure one of your deliberate omissions is the man whom I believe is the only player to score in the World Cup Finals whilst contracted to us. And that’s about as good as it gets, as his other record is consecutive relegations from the PL with ourselves and QPR, and another one a couple of years later at Swansea. How unlucky can you be, Leroy?
It’s always puzzled me that we haven’t done better with Dutch imports. It’s a bit of a generalisation, but I always felt in the early days of overseas players coming to the UK the Dutch did pretty well compared to many nationalities, epitomised by the 2 that you mentioned at the start. But not on the whole for us.
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Hi Keith
I must honestly say that I didn’t deliberately bypass Leroy Fer – great shout.
My only recollection of him is his playing on after a foul committed by us [Swansea?] and kicking off at the ref when it was quite rightly ruled out for unsporting behaviour.
Probably the two most influential players from overseas were Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa back in the day at Tottenham. Everybody over 50 will remember them!
Thanks as ever.
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With better connections from Norwich to the Netherlands than to most other European countries you would have thought there would have been a conveyor belt of talent zipping back and forth over the years. Pity – but it’s not too late!
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Hi Chris.
We wouldn’t even be “the Canaries” without the Dutch influence so I’m very inclined to agree with you. It’s never too late!
Cheers.
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Good article, Martin. You are indeed correct – our Dutch loan imports do seem to be pretty woeful. Not sure why.
I had to double check this reference with the wonderful Flown from the Nest website, but my suspicions were correct.
At one point we had Jimmy Floyd’s younger brother on trial; Carlos Hasselbaink.
The website suggests that ‘despite scoring a few goals, he was no better than what we have got’ (Bryan Hamilton). All the more surprising when you consider De Waard was signed from a video.
Good bit of nostalgia. Thanks as ever.
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Hi Martin.
I had no idea about Carlos H ever being with us on trial. Pity it wasn’t Jimmy Floyd but I’m sure Hamilton would have rejected him as well.
Lockdown boredom inspired me to do something about our Germans and there’s very little nostalgia in that one!
Cheers pal.
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Hi Martin
You seem to have forgotten an over priced Wigan player from the not so distant past Yanic Wildshut under Alex N.
An was Jos Hoosvelt from Southampton and Maceo Righter from Blackburn neither set the city world alight.
Another interesting read.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay Safe and Well
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Hi Alex.
Wildschut, unlike Leroy Fer, was a deliberate omission. How much did Alex Neil pay Wigan for him? I hate to remember but it was something like £3-4million.
Same bracket as Naismith to me I’m afraid.
Hoosvelt I can vaguely recall but Richter means nothing to me at all.
Thanks for filling in some gaps!
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I read the full package for Wildshut was about £9m and then he gets a free
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Falls off chair!
Really? I don’t disbelieve you for a second but equally I don’t quite understand how it could have amounted to that much.
Add-ons and not inconsiderable wages on a lengthy contract I guess, but even so. He never played for Holland while he was with us and his only achievement was relegation. Even if the add-ons were appearance related it doesn’t stack up – although maybe it did for Alex Neil. Anyway he can’t do that at Preston!
Thank the Lord for Stuart Webber :-).
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Here is the story.
Norwich CityEdit
On 31 January 2017, Wildschut joined Norwich City for a fee in the region of £7 million plus add ons. Wildschut scored his first goal for Norwich in a 1–1 draw with Bristol City on 7 March 2017.[64]
This is reported on wiki
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I always felt sorry for Ricky. I so wanted him to succeed and when he scored that debut goal, I was convinced we had a player on our hands. Sadly, the clueless Hughton and the selfish Snodgrass conspired against him and that was pretty much the end of that. I’ve never understood why Managers have a set way of playing and then buy players who don’t fit into that style. I guess they think they can coach them to play that way but it seems more sensible to buy a ready made player. A bit like Daniel Farke does actually. And that’s probably why he will have a far more successful career than Hughton.
Another name that springs to mind in Leroy Fer. Again, could’ve/should’ve been so good for us but apart from a few glimpses, another signing that has to be regarded as a failure.
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Hi DP3.
Yes, penaltygate just about finished off RvW. And the irony of Snodgrass failing to convert said penalty was not lost on me. Or most of us.
Ah, Hughton and his inverted wingers, hey?
As for Leroy Fer, see my reply to Keith B above.
Good comment – thank you.
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Not a Dutch import as such (obviously) but Todd Cantwell’s season at Fortuna Sittard seemed to change him from a ‘possible’ to a probable.
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Hi Don.
We seem to be getting it together with our loan outs – we’ve got a couple in the Netherlands and I believe Rocky Bushiri is/was in his native Belgium. And so many more all over the shop from St Mirren to MK Dons to Kings Lynn.
That Neil Adams is no fool when it comes to evaluating a young player.
As you say the spell at Fortuna Sittard turned the boy Cantwell into a man. And who reaped the benefit? Us of course.
Cheers and keep good.
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and to complete the low countries we have the future with slim Jim from FC doodledangle in Luxembourg to come.
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Ha!
You never know, Danel Sanini could turn out to be the Webberfella’s Masterstroke. Well, Jim D did mention QUEEN Juliana earlier.
Good one.
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Good stuff Mr Penney.
I can’t help thinking that if RvW had been with us under Farke rather than Hughton we would have seen a rather different and more accomplished performer.
Prior to his recent horrendous setback has wasn’t doing too badly in the Europa league.
Have to agree that the straw for that particular back HAD to be the selfishness of Mr Snodgrass.
Keep well, and stay safe.
O T B C
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Hi John.
My beef over the RvW signing is with Hughton really. He must have seen enough of RvW to know that he was never going to fit into the system he employed – often 10 men behind the ball!
I’m pretty sure that was our first penalty of the season and given RvW success rate as the designated taker at Sporting there is no way Snodgrass should been allowed to bully himself into taking it.
Whoever was captain that day [can’t remember who] should have nipped it in the bud.
Thanks as always.
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