John Heitinga is of course under a lot of pressure at Ajax, after a lot of bad results and – perhaps even more importantly – abysmal play. There is a reasonable chance that it will be over for him after tomorrow.
‘John Heitinga leaves Ajax after defeat against FC Twente’
ESPN recently released a revealing piece about the state of affairs in the Johan Cruijff ArenA and in the podcast Kick-Off Mike Verweij responds: “Marijn Beuker is the only one to come out of ESPN’s research well.” Valentijn Driessen: “Who should make the decision at Ajax? Then Kroes will have to fire Heitinga, together with Beuker. But then Kroes can no longer be maintained. But who will send him away, or will Kroes himself throw in the towel?”
Verweij finds this interpretation somewhat special: “That construction is simply not correct. What do you do with a football director and a technical director? I find that very strange.” His colleague responds: “What do you judge them on? You can judge Kroes on the first team, the selection and the trainers. But a director of football, what on earth do you judge him on? He sits there wonderfully.”
Heitinga survived the 5-1 defeat against Chelsea in the Champions League, but if his team loses against FC Twente in De Grolsch Veste… Verweij: “I think Ajax will continue to support Heitinga as long as it can. But a defeat at FC Twente makes that almost impossible, I’m afraid.”
That is also Driessen’s expectation: “This is of course the beginning of the end when Ajax is not going to perform. If you also lose at FC Twente, then the small part that now shouted ‘Johnny, screw it’ will of course become larger. You have to watch out for that.”
