{"id":147119,"date":"2025-05-31T15:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T15:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147119\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T15:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T15:28:12","slug":"liverpool-assistant-departs-the-club-after-their-premier-league-triumph-to-become-head-coach-of-dutch-giants-ajax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147119\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool assistant departs the club after their Premier League triumph to become head coach of Dutch giants Ajax"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Ajax have announced their new boss following Francesco Farioli&#8217;s departure<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"\"><strong>Their new boss previously had an interim spell in charge of the club in 2023<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"\"><strong>LISTEN NOW: <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dailymail.lnk.to\/its-all-kicking-offDM\">It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!<\/a> Is Ruben Amorim too honest?\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-3444\/Adrian-Bishop.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ADRIAN BISHOP<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  10:03 EDT, 31 May 2025   |  Updated:  10:03 EDT, 31 May 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">A <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/liverpool\/index.html\" id=\"mol-89ac6a30-3e27-11f0-b490-8ba03ba3b61f\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a> coach has departed the club after accepting the vacant head coach position at Dutch side Ajax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In his first season on Merseyside <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/arne-slot\/index.html\" id=\"mol-89ae8d10-3e27-11f0-b490-8ba03ba3b61f\" rel=\"noopener\">Arne Slot<\/a> led the Reds to their first <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/premierleague\/index.html\" id=\"mol-89b45970-3e27-11f0-b490-8ba03ba3b61f\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a> title since 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In doing so the club have now drawn level with bitter rivals <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/manchester-united\/index.html\" id=\"mol-89ac9140-3e27-11f0-b490-8ba03ba3b61f\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester United<\/a> for the most successful English team in league history, with both sides having lifted the title 20 times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Slot has wasted little time looking towards the defence of Liverpool&#8217;s title, with the club now frontrunners to sign Florian Wirtz this summer and with Jeremie Frimpong arriving from Leverkusen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, one Dutchman who will have no involvement for the Reds in 2025-26 is former assistant boss John Heitinga after he agreed to become manager of Ajax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The former <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/everton\/index.html\" id=\"mol-89aba6e0-3e27-11f0-b490-8ba03ba3b61f\" rel=\"noopener\">Everton<\/a> defender arrived at Anfield last summer and has served as Slot&#8217;s No 2 throughout their Premier League-winning campaign.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-d099a9978e1321ed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98921465-0-image-a-9_1748699742977.jpg\" height=\"458\" width=\"634\" alt=\"John Heitinga has left his role as Liverpool assistant boss to take the vacant managerial position at Ajax\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">John Heitinga has left his role as Liverpool assistant boss to take the vacant managerial position at Ajax<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-27f2ea5240b11d63\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98921467-0-image-a-10_1748699792262.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The former Premier League defender previously managed the club on an interim basis in 2023\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The former Premier League defender previously managed the club on an interim basis in 2023<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-5de195384a66cd0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98921523-0-image-a-11_1748699827335.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Ajax have gone three years without a league title, having narrowly missed out under Francesco Farioli last season\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Ajax have gone three years without a league title, having narrowly missed out under Francesco Farioli last season<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">However, the 41-year-old will now return to Amsterdam for the fourth time, having enjoyed two spells at the club as a player and a brief stint in charge of the senior side in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Heitinga has agreed a two-year contract and replaces\u00a0Francesco Farioli, who departed the club after a single season in charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The former defender will be joined in the dugout by fellow Ajax academy graduate Marcel Keizer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;John is a good coach with enormous drive,&#8217; said Ajax technical director Alex Kroes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He is ambitious and has further developed himself over the past few years in the Premier League and Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;John knows the club well and we are convinced that he, together with Marcel, will help improve our players and build on the progress made since last summer.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The most successful club in the history of Dutch football, Ajax have not won an Eredivisie title since Erik ten Hag led the club to victory in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Liverpool assistant departs the club after their Premier League triumph to become head coach of Dutch giants Ajax<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ajax have announced their new boss following Francesco Farioli&#8217;s departure Their new boss previously had an interim spell&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[1121,748,92,393,94,4884,179,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-147119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-liverpool","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114603157474668524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147119","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=147119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}