The Dutch Consortium. Few thoughts. by IpswichTownNL 8 Apr 2017 11:30
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.