After John Heitinga left Liverpool to become Ajax manager in the summer, the Dutchman’s agent has claimed he advised his client against it.
Things aren’t going particularly smoothly for Heitinga in his first senior managerial role.
Ajax are third in the Eredivisie with just four wins from their opening nine league matches, and they have lost their opening two Champions League matches.
Having left his role as a coach under Arne Slot after winning the Premier League with Liverpool, Heitinga’s agent, Rob Jansen, has now told the KieftJansenEgmondGijp podcast that he advised against the move.
Via Soccer News, Jansen said: “I told him I wouldn’t do it, go to Ajax right now. He wanted to do it out of ego, his heart and his feeling for the club.
“That’s certainly a bit of opportunism from a young manager who thinks, ‘I’ll take control of things’.
“But what he was confronted with was the past, a huge mess within the club. The entire management structure and commissioners are flawed; the board still needs to find its way.”
Ajax haven’t won the Eredivisie since 2022 and appointed Heitinga as someone who knows the club.
The former Everton defender played 218 times for Ajax before earning his stripes as a coach, developing players in their academy and eventually working his way up to caretaker manager in 2023.
After working at West Ham and Liverpool, Heitinga deemed himself ready to take the Ajax job permanently this year, but he has been dealt a tough hand.
His agent added: “The players he has, including some they’ve brought in, it’s an unbalanced squad with a few older players who can’t keep up anymore.
“They’re not really fit and if they bring in [Kasper] Dolberg (striker), he’ll get injured again. So as Rene says, you have to adjust expectations.”
While fans may welcome back Heitinga to Liverpool given his success last season, there would be the added complication of Slot having effectively already replaced him with Giovanni van Bronckhorst who has also held senior managerial roles, notably at Rangers and Feyenoord.
Ajax also currently have two Liverpool loanees at the club, Vitezslav Jaros and James McConnell, so it would be in the Reds’ interest to have Heitinga remain in situ for the rest of the campaign at least.
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