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Midfielder Colin Viljoen began his footballing career in England with
Bill McGarry's Ipswich Town side in March 1967. Under their next
manager, Bobby Robson, the East Anglian club became one of the country's
top teams of the mid 1970s and Viljoen was a major factor in their
successes. He stayed at Portman Road for 11 seasons (and played more
than 300 League games, scoring 45 times) before joining City on 15th
August 1978 for a fee of £100, 000. A naturalized Briton, Viljoen was
such a consistent performer during his days with Ipswich that he won two
caps for England, both coming in a four-day spell in May 1975. A
goalless draw with Northern Ireland in Belfast was followed by a 2-2
draw with Wales at Wembley, both games in the Home International
Championship.
His debut for City started on a high with a 4-1 win at
Chelsea thanks largely to a hat-trick by another newcomer, Ron Futcher.
However it proved to be a stop-start season for both club and player.
City finished in a disappointing 15th place in Division One (a drop of
eleven places from the previous season) and Viljoen played 16 League
games with his longest run in the side just five matches in February and
March. He seemed unable to find his true Ipswich form in City's
colours, a fact born out when he managed just eleven League games with
two of those as a substitute, in the 1979/80 season. Even under new
manager Malcolm Allison, City and Viljoen continued to struggle and
Allison eventually sold the player to Chelsea on 13th March 1980 for a
fee of £60,000.
He played a combined total of 35/3 League and Cup games
for City, scoring just once, in a 1-1 League Cup draw at Sheffield
Wednesday in August 1979. (Ian Penney - author of The Legends of Manchester City)
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