| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. 11:30 - Apr 8 with 22768 views | IpswichTownNL |
This week I was talking to an Ipswich mate when he mentioned he heard a rumour that ‘Town would get a Dutch manager that was currently not working in the Eredivisie (Dutch PL)’. I asked where he heard this and his answer was ‘a gas station in Cardiff’. I obviously laughed it away and told him that there would only be one manager in the Dutch Championship (Jupiler League) that I would want to see at Town; Maurice Steijn. He’s the current manager of VVV-Venlo a club that I support since I can walk.
I didn’t put much thought into the whole thing. This week the rumours of a ‘Dutch consortium’ came about and I still didn’t think much of it. Last night at the VVV game we were talking about Steijn and how he hasn’t renewed his contract yet despite VVV going up in a matter of days. I told a mate I heard a rumour that Town would get a Dutch Manager and that it might be Steijn. He immediately said ‘Well, in that case ‘The Carpet King’ has be involved. And that actually makes sense.
Who’s ‘The Carpet King’? His name is John van Zweden. A former ADO den Haag Hooligan who bought 1/5 of Swansea City about 25 years ago for 50k. Fast forward 25 years and last year van Zweden sold his interest in Swansea for about 20 million pound. Van Zweden and Steijn are very good mates. I also know van Zweden has a huge soft spot for Ipswich. I follow him on twitter where I repeatedly seen him talk about Ipswich with Tom van Hulsen (writher of the book ‘Game Changers’ on Muhren and Thijssen) about how the club should be in in the Premier League and just last night he tweeted that Steijn would be a perfect manager for Town.
He’s also a bit of controversial person. Like I said he’s former Hooligan with ‘f*ck you money’ and pretty much behaves that way. He called the current Chinese owner of ADO a gook and what not. He’s called The Carpet King (actually The Wall Paper King, but I like Carpet King better, lol) because he — still — has a wallpaper and carpet shop in The Hague.
So, if there is such a thing as a Dutch Consortium odds are likely van Zweden is involved. Obviously 20 Million Pounds isn’t going to get you anywhere but maybe he got some people interested in repeating the Swansea story at Ipswich. I would like him being involved in Town very much over some Chinese or Arab fellow. He’s a proper football man that for sure.
With regard to Steijn. Good manager. Though as nails and doesn’t seem to have any favourites in a team. I haven’t disagreed with his starting line up once in 3 years.
So, make of this what you want. Probably not much but thought it was worth sharing. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 18:59 - Apr 9 with 3598 views | BorisOrTrevor |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 17:07 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
That wasn't the initial post re a Dutch consortium, that was speculation based on previous posts and the Steijn whisper which had been circulating. |
Out of interest if there are whispers circulating why don't you post them earlier? Perhaps have s gossip section on the website. This isn't Reuters after all and may lead to people talking more about football and less about politics. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:02 - Apr 9 with 3583 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 18:59 - Apr 9 by BorisOrTrevor |
Out of interest if there are whispers circulating why don't you post them earlier? Perhaps have s gossip section on the website. This isn't Reuters after all and may lead to people talking more about football and less about politics. |
It was initially a very vague rumour, don't tend to do anything unless I've firmed it up to some extent. |  | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:13 - Apr 9 with 3551 views | BackToRussia |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 18:32 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
I think he'll go in the summer or once we're safe, don't really think it's healthy for a club to continue to have a manager who such a significant section of the support have little time for. To be fair to Mick, he has said he agrees with that line of thought.
Also, from his perspective he doesn't need the hassle. Can't be much fun managing the club at the moment, getting booed all the time, abused as he walks off the field, as he was yesterday.
He'll get another club without much trouble, probably one where there's more money to spend and a greater chance of getting promoted. Outside Town circles the wider view is he's done a very good job here given the lack of resources.
I'm sure ME has been assessing where to go next since Mick said he would consider his position in the summer. Whether Maurice Steijn is on the current long list I've no idea, Tom van Hulsen was surprised when the name cropped up and he knows more about Dutch football than most of us. Would be a left field appointment, I think.
This post has been edited by an administrator |
Thanks for your reply.
Would MM not rather give ME a bit of an ultimatum if he's thinking that way? Back me or I'll walk type of thing?
I doubt ME has much of an appetite for a manager hunt. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:34 - Apr 9 with 3508 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:13 - Apr 9 by BackToRussia |
Thanks for your reply.
Would MM not rather give ME a bit of an ultimatum if he's thinking that way? Back me or I'll walk type of thing?
I doubt ME has much of an appetite for a manager hunt. |
I think ME would probably like to keep MM - other than this year he's been a success in terms of league position given the budget and he's made a very significant profit in the transfer market - which was probably why there was more money to spend in January (even if they didn't find someone to actually spend it on).
But at the same time I would guess he is seeing that MM's relationship with fans has become a major problem and that it's probably not good for MM to keep going in the current environment for too much longer. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:40 - Apr 9 with 3480 views | BackToRussia |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:34 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
I think ME would probably like to keep MM - other than this year he's been a success in terms of league position given the budget and he's made a very significant profit in the transfer market - which was probably why there was more money to spend in January (even if they didn't find someone to actually spend it on).
But at the same time I would guess he is seeing that MM's relationship with fans has become a major problem and that it's probably not good for MM to keep going in the current environment for too much longer. |
That all makes sense, except Evans doesn't seem to be the type to go along with fans' sentiment. He didn't make any concessions or any overtures to the fans regarding the season ticket sales, despite there being lots of talk from the club about wanting to ensure OK ST sales.
As it stands ME is increasingly unpopular with the fans and I don't think he is going to get much credit for the way he has handled MM's departure. He's going to rely on his manager choice for some positivity from fans. | |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:45 - Apr 9 with 3454 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:40 - Apr 9 by BackToRussia |
That all makes sense, except Evans doesn't seem to be the type to go along with fans' sentiment. He didn't make any concessions or any overtures to the fans regarding the season ticket sales, despite there being lots of talk from the club about wanting to ensure OK ST sales.
As it stands ME is increasingly unpopular with the fans and I don't think he is going to get much credit for the way he has handled MM's departure. He's going to rely on his manager choice for some positivity from fans. |
I don't think he'll be going to be going along with fans' sentiment as such, but more the reality of the current divide between club and fans not being great in terms of the bottom line. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:48 - Apr 9 with 3440 views | Mullet |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:45 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
I don't think he'll be going to be going along with fans' sentiment as such, but more the reality of the current divide between club and fans not being great in terms of the bottom line. |
Is it a case of him throwing MM under the bus do you think?
It's going to take some explaining if he gives a new bloke a wad to spend too, even the fact that squad is in need of freshening up now so many mainstays have been here so long.
I know plenty will turn a blind eye should that happen, and maybe it's convenient, but there are some real questions about why spending has been non-existent under Mick when even he seems to have shifted and has started throwing barbs about it in the last couple of months. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:52 - Apr 9 with 3429 views | bournemouthblue |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:34 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
I think ME would probably like to keep MM - other than this year he's been a success in terms of league position given the budget and he's made a very significant profit in the transfer market - which was probably why there was more money to spend in January (even if they didn't find someone to actually spend it on).
But at the same time I would guess he is seeing that MM's relationship with fans has become a major problem and that it's probably not good for MM to keep going in the current environment for too much longer. |
How much would you estimate our total budget actually is Phil? |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 20:40 - Apr 9 with 3357 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:48 - Apr 9 by Mullet |
Is it a case of him throwing MM under the bus do you think?
It's going to take some explaining if he gives a new bloke a wad to spend too, even the fact that squad is in need of freshening up now so many mainstays have been here so long.
I know plenty will turn a blind eye should that happen, and maybe it's convenient, but there are some real questions about why spending has been non-existent under Mick when even he seems to have shifted and has started throwing barbs about it in the last couple of months. |
I think the division has moved on a lot in a short space of time. A couple of years back there were virtually no fees paid at this level and FFP and sustainability were the buzz phrases. Now you've got someone like Wolves paying out £13 million for one player.
I think ME saw MM succeeding in relative terms by getting Town to sixth and seventh and has kept the budget at around the same levels while the goalposts have significantly moved. Whoever is manager next season I think the budget has to increase if we're going to compete. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:04 - Apr 9 with 3296 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 19:52 - Apr 9 by bournemouthblue |
How much would you estimate our total budget actually is Phil? |
In terms of wages it's £17.5m-ish this year, £12m or so of that relating to players. As for what's available for fees, not really sure. There was £2m-ish available for Hugill had Preston had been willing to sell. Not sure it really works on a basis of a simple 'fees fund' as it were anyway. Has been outlined before as ME looking at any individual potential deal on its own merits. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:13 - Apr 9 with 3259 views | The_Romford_Blue |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:04 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
In terms of wages it's £17.5m-ish this year, £12m or so of that relating to players. As for what's available for fees, not really sure. There was £2m-ish available for Hugill had Preston had been willing to sell. Not sure it really works on a basis of a simple 'fees fund' as it were anyway. Has been outlined before as ME looking at any individual potential deal on its own merits. |
Are you sure that 2m really was available?
Do you think we possibly bid that amount knowing it was not going to be accepted? |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:21 - Apr 9 with 3228 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:13 - Apr 9 by The_Romford_Blue |
Are you sure that 2m really was available?
Do you think we possibly bid that amount knowing it was not going to be accepted? |
Seems a bit unlikely, not sure there's any point in doing that. Money was clearly available, don't think Hugill was the only one that sort of figure was offered for either. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:14 - Apr 9 with 3075 views | The_Romford_Blue |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:21 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
Seems a bit unlikely, not sure there's any point in doing that. Money was clearly available, don't think Hugill was the only one that sort of figure was offered for either. |
Dissappointing of course that none were actually landed
Go in again for hugill or Ward in the summer you think? | |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:22 - Apr 9 with 3053 views | bournemouthblue |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 21:21 - Apr 9 by PhilTWTD |
Seems a bit unlikely, not sure there's any point in doing that. Money was clearly available, don't think Hugill was the only one that sort of figure was offered for either. |
The club should have really put £6 - 7 million aside to find Murphy's replacement imho
That is the cost of a top Championship striker nowadays and that's exactly what we sold in Murphy
Look at the cost of not replacing him this season, we've been flirting with relegation and that's very disappointing in a particularly weak league this season | |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:23 - Apr 9 with 3053 views | BABLUE |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:14 - Apr 9 by The_Romford_Blue |
Dissappointing of course that none were actually landed
Go in again for hugill or Ward in the summer you think? |
It depends who the manager is.
MM might fancy them, but will the new man, assuming that Mick goes?
The whole squad will be revamped if a new manager comes in as he will hopefully want to play some football which will require a different type of player. |  | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:41 - Apr 9 with 3026 views | JohnyJohnson |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:23 - Apr 9 by BABLUE |
It depends who the manager is.
MM might fancy them, but will the new man, assuming that Mick goes?
The whole squad will be revamped if a new manager comes in as he will hopefully want to play some football which will require a different type of player. |
Some on our books will be like new signings too. |  | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 09:50 - Apr 10 with 2843 views | IpswichTownNL |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 11:58 - Apr 9 by TheBlueBarca |
My thoughts is this is a perfect work of fiction.
The key tell for me, that this is indeed fake news.... isn't Swansea supporting hooligans on Twitter, it's that it's a "Dutch" consortium.
If any fictional consortium of any country ever would be from anywhere at all the get people over excited on this forum it would be Holland. It's just too perfect a story, whoever has made this all up must be laughing their heads off.
I may start a post on the Norwich forum suggesting Gordon Ramsay is about to swoop in and buy them! |
Like I said 'make of this what you want, probably not much’. Just a few things clicked together with the rumour being heard in Wales, van Zweden being a Swan and friend with a manager from the Dutch Championship. I only saw him tweeting about Steijn and Town when I was in the middle of typing that up and almost didn’t hit the post button because that makes it a lot less likely.
Van Zweden has nowhere near the money to pull this off on his own and hardly seem the man people with ‘real capital’ would put their faith in. I really can’t think of anyone in the Netherlands would be interested in buying Town.
I like Town — if true - being interested in Steijn though. Shows they look outside the UK which I like.
On Steijn; It a gamble but he’s a decent manager that for sure. Good man all together. One of his biggest achievement in The Hague was getting everyone to stop swearing with the word ‘Cancer’. That may sound silly but it’s baked into their culture. Any person from The Hague who makes a sentence longer than 10 words has used the word cancer at least twice.
I was really rooting for him to join VVV after he was canned at ADO. At ADO he was sacked but really not much he could do about that imo. The team was piss poor. To be honest I wasn’t overly impressed with him in his first season in Venlo. Football was mostly sh*t and we made the play–offs on an absolute last day miracle with three teams losing and VVV beating > 100 points Champions (38 games) NEC.
I have no idea how big his role in the team selection was the year after that but he & VVV did a real good job in dropping 10 average Joes and getting back 3/4 quality players from direct competitor’s. VVV has been extreme lucky the past two years with regard to injuries and he really made it work with a small group. Football became better quickly and after a second place last year we’ll become champions with a big margin really soon. Football has been recognisable and attractive although I sometimes feel a plan B is missing.
Who would he likely bring from VVV? Only two players would have small shot at making it in the Championship. Jonathan Opoku & Clint Leemans. Opoku is 26 and a number 10. Being 26 and playing in the Dutch Champions ship usually means you’re pretty crap but this guy is an exception. Leemans is a very young midfielder but has been nothing short of extremely impressive since joining VVV this summer after he was dropped at PSV Eindhoven. | |
| Dutch Tractor Boys! Follow on Twitter; @IpswichTownNL |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 09:57 - Apr 10 with 2817 views | Superfrans |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 23:22 - Apr 9 by bournemouthblue |
The club should have really put £6 - 7 million aside to find Murphy's replacement imho
That is the cost of a top Championship striker nowadays and that's exactly what we sold in Murphy
Look at the cost of not replacing him this season, we've been flirting with relegation and that's very disappointing in a particularly weak league this season |
It would seem reasonable to give any manager a budget, topped up with proceeds from any sales. Otherwise a manager isn't motivated to develop players like Mings, Webster etc, knowing full well that they will be sold from under him without any opportunity to replace them.
It's my main beef with Evans. I totally understand that he invests £5/6m a season to keep the club afloat, but if we make £10m in transfers over two years (as we did a couple of years ago) at least some of that should be made available for replacements.
Murphy is a perfect example - if we made £3m in transfer fee and saved £500,000 in salary costs (£10k a week), surely Mick should be able to use that? |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 10:20 - Apr 10 with 2760 views | NeverTellMeTheOdds |
I find myself comparing our situation to that of Aston Villa, just before Randy Lerner sold the club.
Lerner had clearly lost interest in AV, he started cutting the funds, money spent on transfers, selling players etc and the club found itself in a state of apathy much like we are and now find themselves in the Championship with us.
Everything for me points in the direction of Evans getting the club in a position to sell. I heard in January that the club had been approached with a view to buying Marcus Evans shares but I don't think that time it came to anything as Evans was asking for too much money. But I do however think that Evans is looking to sell us if he can get the right price/deal.
May explain why Mick is hanging fire and waiting till the end of the season to see if there is a change of ownership and if they want to keep him on/give him funds etc.
I haven't personally heard anything about these Dutch rumours though other than on here and Twitter etc. Think we all just want to believe there is some saviour out there that is going to come & rescue us and we are willing to believe any slight rumour at this moment in time just to give us some brief hope. Fingers crossed though that there is some substance in this though. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 10:28 - Apr 10 with 2741 views | muccletonjoe |
A) If this consortium or any other were thinking of taking over the club there is no way we would be hearing about it yet.
B) Cant see this guy steijn refusing a new contract for a job that is not even available.
C) Make of this what you will - complete and utter rubbish |  | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 10:31 - Apr 10 with 2725 views | Mullet |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 10:20 - Apr 10 by NeverTellMeTheOdds |
I find myself comparing our situation to that of Aston Villa, just before Randy Lerner sold the club.
Lerner had clearly lost interest in AV, he started cutting the funds, money spent on transfers, selling players etc and the club found itself in a state of apathy much like we are and now find themselves in the Championship with us.
Everything for me points in the direction of Evans getting the club in a position to sell. I heard in January that the club had been approached with a view to buying Marcus Evans shares but I don't think that time it came to anything as Evans was asking for too much money. But I do however think that Evans is looking to sell us if he can get the right price/deal.
May explain why Mick is hanging fire and waiting till the end of the season to see if there is a change of ownership and if they want to keep him on/give him funds etc.
I haven't personally heard anything about these Dutch rumours though other than on here and Twitter etc. Think we all just want to believe there is some saviour out there that is going to come & rescue us and we are willing to believe any slight rumour at this moment in time just to give us some brief hope. Fingers crossed though that there is some substance in this though. |
I think the problem is, ME's had several offers of various size and seriousness for years. It's hard to know how likely any of them coming off our.
I agree he's likely looking to sell, but then he probably was before Mick got us into the playoffs and then fell short of repeating the trick. You wonder how much of that delayed a sale? | |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 12:44 - Apr 10 with 2601 views | stickymockwell |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 12:22 - Apr 8 by MJallday |
hes dutch - hasnt responded yet. he'll be on a bicycle, or sh1tting up someones arm or something*
* no i dont know what dutch people do. |
POTY |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 12:52 - Apr 10 with 2584 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 10:31 - Apr 10 by Mullet |
I think the problem is, ME's had several offers of various size and seriousness for years. It's hard to know how likely any of them coming off our.
I agree he's likely looking to sell, but then he probably was before Mick got us into the playoffs and then fell short of repeating the trick. You wonder how much of that delayed a sale? |
I'm not sure he is willing to sell. Unless there's been a recent turnaround I would have thought that making more money available in January (which there was even if they didn't find anyone to spend it on) and spending on things like the 3G pitch would be things he wouldn't have done if he'd been looking to sell imminently. | | | |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 13:16 - Apr 10 with 2543 views | TractorWood |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 12:52 - Apr 10 by PhilTWTD |
I'm not sure he is willing to sell. Unless there's been a recent turnaround I would have thought that making more money available in January (which there was even if they didn't find anyone to spend it on) and spending on things like the 3G pitch would be things he wouldn't have done if he'd been looking to sell imminently. |
I think they way things are at the moment, he sells for a decent offer. The enigma of why he wants to keep us, not invest sufficiently too keep us competitive but still lose millions a year and be disliked by mostly everyone is utterly unfathomable. |  |
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| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 13:26 - Apr 10 with 2528 views | PhilTWTD |
| The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. on 13:16 - Apr 10 by TractorWood |
I think they way things are at the moment, he sells for a decent offer. The enigma of why he wants to keep us, not invest sufficiently too keep us competitive but still lose millions a year and be disliked by mostly everyone is utterly unfathomable. |
I think he has seen us be competitive for the two seasons prior to this one at his current levels of investment. The division has moved on very quickly and I think he has been left behind and needs to rethink. I'm not sure he'd be that bothered by the animosity, to be honest. | | | |
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