We all know about those success stories. We were the first club to hire Dutch players into the top flight of English football, and many other imports followed in their wake.
Some of them we will never forget, whilst others left an awful lot to be desired. The first two were arguably the best two, when in 78’& 79, Sir Bobby Robson recruited Arnold Muhren, and later Frans Thijssen. They were both truly exceptional players.
You could argue that Martijn Reuser was the next best thing to arrive from the Netherlands, and that kind of reasoning is justifiable after he scored the winning goal against Barnsley at Wembley, which propelled us back into the Premier League!
Interestingly, it was another former Dutch player Romeo Zondervan who had spotted Reuser on a scouting mission for the club, and George Burley listened to his recommendation. I saw Zondervan score a cracking goal for Ipswich Town against Everton away when he thumped the ball home from around 25 yards on the volley to the dismay of the home supporters. He played for Ipswich for 8 years racking up 274 appearances, and netting 13 times! Town signed him for a steal from WBA for £70,000!
When we did our daily vlog on the subject of former Dutch players I was reminded that I had neglected to mention both Bobby Peta and Fabian Wilnis. Left-winger Peta was born in Rotterdam and having played briefly for Feyenoord and FC Dordrecht, he moved to Suffolk in 1996, before moving on a free to Celtic three years later. He was a good player and my wife and I witnessed him scoring for Celtic against Ajax in August 2001 in a Champions League game in Amsterdam. That was one of his rare goals for them, but for us, he scored 9 times in 71 appearances. Injuries later blighted his career.
And we must not forget Fabian Wilnis – which I sadly did too! How could I forget the fabulous goal he scored against Manchester United at Portman Road after Town’s promotion to the Elite League? David Beckham levelled things up but that goal, after just six minutes, was a great way to open our new Premier League account! Winis signed for the Blues in 1999 from De Graafschap for around 200,000, and he was good value for money, playing 292 times and scoring 6 times in the process as a wing-back.
And here is the bit that I don’t particularly like writing about. The failures. Not many I admit, but they do exist. Midfielder Cor Lems was one of them. He was signed in the 1983/84 season but he returned to the Netherlands halfway through the season with a serious thigh injury. We cannot blame Robson for that – or the player, who was never allowed to advertise his true worth. He came from Den Hague and returned to them.
Finally, we must mention Pim Balkestein. He joined Ipswich in 2008 on a two-year contract, with the option of a further twelve months. Town paid 180.000 for his services, but rumour has it they had confused him with another centre-half, but Jim Magilton was suitably impressed when he watched him in a friendly for Ipswich Town Reserves against Spurs, and he bought him from FC Groningen. He made 20 league appearances for Town, but would soon be quickly forgotten and consequently discarded. Perhaps ironically, it was Premier League Brentford who took him from us. Look at them now!
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