Liverpool coach Johnny Heitinga is ‘destined to return’ to Ajax at some point in future, but the Reds won’t let him go for a while.
That’s according to Valentijn Driessen in De Telegraaf, relayed by Ajax Showtime, who believes Heitinga is destined to return to his former club in future.
The Dutchman is currently part of Arne Slot’s backroom team at Anfield, having joined him in the summer after a previous spell at West Ham United.
He spent a year with the Hammers under his former manager David Moyes having left Ajax in somewhat controversial circumstances in 2023.
He had been working his way up the coaching ladder with his previous club, coaching Ajax II, Ajax YL and their U17s, U18s and U19s before being made interim head coach of the first team in January 2023.
He was in charge for 22 games from that point and enjoyed a points per game ratio of 2.05, winning 14 and losing five of his games in charge.
Ajax elected to go in a different direction rather than give him the job full-time, though, leading Heitinga back to the Premier League, where he has now won the title as Arne Slot’s assistant at Liverpool. Driessen believes he’ll be returning to Amsterdam in future, though.
‘With Heitinga, the former successful Feyenoord coach has included a true Ajax man in his staff at Liverpool,” he said.
“The 41-year-old coach from Alphen aan den Rijn is destined to return to the Johan Cruijff ArenA one day, but as part of team Slot, Liverpool does not want to let him go for the time being.”
