Ajax fires former Liverpool player, prepares to appoint former MU player

TPO - Erik ten Hag still has a certain appeal, as he is preparing to have a new job not long after being fired by Leverkusen. He is negotiating with Ajax to replace John Heitinga who was fired on Thursday night.

On Thursday night, Ajax decided to fire coach John Heitinga, just over 10 hours after losing 0-3 at home to Galatasaray in the Champions League. Ajax's performance in the main Eredivisie arena was also not very positive, finishing only fourth.

Heitinga was Arne Slot's assistant at Liverpool during the 2024/25 title-winning season. However, he left Slot's coaching staff to take over at Ajax in the summer of 2025, having only managed five wins in 15 games in charge. "It was a heartbreaking decision to sack Heitinga, but looking back over the past few months, we see that things have gone completely differently than we had envisioned," said Ajax technical director Alex Kroes.

Dutch media revealed that Ajax is negotiating with Erik ten Hag about the possibility of reuniting. Having led the Amsterdam club for 4 and a half years (from January 2018 to May 2022), Ten Hag created a brilliant era with 3 Eredivisie championships and 2 National Cups, 1 Super Cup. The 55-year-old coach is said to be ready for a return to the place that made his name.

Ten Hag did not have much success after leaving Ajax. He was fired by MU because he was considered to have trivialized the team. At Bayer Leverkusen, he also lost his job quickly after 3 matches on the pitch.

Despite this, the Dutch coach is still a name that many teams want. He is on the list of candidates for the hot seat at Wolves, replacing the recently fired Vitor Pereira. The Premier League club contacted Ten Hag through an intermediary to assess the level of interest. However, Wolves' bottom position, with 2 points after 10 games, has discouraged Ten Hag. Obviously, returning to Ajax is the more attractive option.

Sources say that before deciding to sack Heitinga, Ajax and Ten Hag had an open discussion at Huizen earlier this week. Although the conversation was described as "just a pre-planned coffee", everyone understood that Ajax was promoting a strong change to restore its position, similar to the Ten Hag era a few years ago.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/ajax-sa-thai-nguoi-cu-cua-liverpool-chuan-bi-bo-nhiem-nguoi-cu-cua-mu-post1794113.tpo