{"id":144757,"date":"2025-05-30T18:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/144757\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T18:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:20:09","slug":"arne-slot-has-already-reacted-as-liverpool-man-secures-exit-not-smart-football-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/144757\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has already reacted as Liverpool man secures exit – ‘Not smart’ | Football | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot<\/a> has already given his verdict on John Heitinga\u2019s prospective appointment as Ajax\u2019s head coach. The former Everton man was part of the coaching team at Anfield who helped deliver the club\u2019s record-equalling 20th league title.<\/p>\n

However, less than a week since the Reds lifted the Premier League title in front of the Anfield crowd, Heitinga is being tipped to leave Liverpool<\/a> in search of pastures new. It\u2019s reported by several sources that the Dutchman is expected to take over from the departing Francesco Farioli<\/a> to become the new Ajax manager.<\/p>\n

Ajax suffered a humiliating end to the campaign by throwing away a nine-point lead at the top of the Eredivisie table, allowing PSV Eindhoven to swoop in and steal the title from under their nose. Farioli\u2019s departure was all but confirmed fewer than 24 hours after the final match of the season, forcing the four-time European champions to go in search of a new manager.<\/p>\n

They appear to have landed on Heitinga, who spent close to 10 years across two different spells at Ajax as a player and also managed the club for 22 matches on an interim basis in 2023. The pair are set to rekindle their relationship, with an announcement on Heitinga\u2019s appointment due to arrive in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Although incumbent Reds boss Slot – perhaps unsurprisingly – doesn\u2019t think Heitinga is making the right decision. Speaking in an interview with The Times, he said: \u201cIf Ajax would be smart, they would consider him. He is ready to take on a job like that. If John is smart, he would stay one more season.\u201d<\/p>\n

A brutal assessment of Ajax\u2019s current status, but one that could be considered tongue-in-cheek, given Slot\u2019s previous connection with fellow Dutch giants, Feyenoord. However, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time Slot has called out Ajax for not pursuing Heitinga earlier.<\/p>\n

Referencing the interim spell Heitinga had in Amsterdam, Slot told Algemeen Dagblad: \u201cThat Sven Mislintat [then director of football at Ajax] did not choose Heitinga as head coach at the time \u2013 and that he left Ajax for that reason \u2013 Liverpool<\/a> is now profiting from that. Apparently they did not realise in Amsterdam that they had an excellent coach in-house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a> are unlucky to benefit a second time around, with Ajax seemingly correcting their previous mistake by making Heitinga the main man. It will leave Slot with the unwanted task of finding a replacement over the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has already given his verdict on John Heitinga\u2019s prospective appointment as Ajax\u2019s head coach. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[60102,1121,748,393,94,4884,60106,1041,1052,179,763,1126,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-144757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-ajax","9":"tag-arne-slot","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-john-heitinga","15":"tag-lfc","16":"tag-lfc-news","17":"tag-liverpool","18":"tag-liverpool-fc","19":"tag-liverpool-news","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114598171360314631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}