Six months ago it felt like Jordan Henderson was preparing for the final act of his Liverpool career. Jürgen Klopp's side needed to revamp their midfield, but even if new arrivals like Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai meant his playing time would have been reduced somewhat, he could at least have afforded a fitting end to his time at Anfield. That's what a captain has , who won the Premier League and the Champions League, deserves it.
As it stands, he is close to signing for Ajax, which from Henderson's point of view is less a football club at this point and more a temporary lifeboat that he jumped into after deciding that neither the money nor the opportunity To expand football in Saudi Arabia, there was worthwhile compensation for having to play football there.
His options appeared to be limited, especially when another potential suitor, Juventus, decided he was not suitable for them. Not many clubs in England seemed interested and returning home would have been difficult from a tax perspective anyway.
At first glance, Henderson appears to be on his feet. He's leaving Al Ettifaq for one of the world's most storied football clubs, where he still won't be making exactly a pauper's wage and is as close to the UK as you can physically get without setting off an alarm at His Majesty's Revenue and Customs .
But is this really a good move? Ajax may be a star, but this is not the team of Johan Cruyff, Clarence Seedorf or Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It's not even Antony's Ajax.
Henderson joins an Ajax team that has been a pure clown show for most of this season, albeit not getting sprayed in the face with water from a plastic flower as often as it was a few months ago.
Since Erik ten Hag moved to Manchester United in 2022, the team has essentially been gutted, its best players sold for sometimes extravagant fees that have been unwisely reinvested.
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Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez went to West Ham, Jurrien Timber was signed from Arsenal and Fulham bought Calvin Bassey last summer. This is in addition to the departures last season when Lisandro Martinez and Antony Ten Hag followed to Manchester, Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui went to Bayern Munich, Andre Onana moved to Inter and Sebastien Haller was sold to Borussia Dortmund.
This makes the team indistinguishable from the team that won the Dutch title in 2021/22. But while Ajax are used to selling their top talent and then are pretty good at replenishing their stocks, their recruitment has been disastrous this season. Former Arsenal transfer guru Sven Mislintat was hired in April, spent more than 100 million euros (86 million pounds; $109 million) on new players, but was then promptly sacked in September. Internal politics were a factor, but most of the players he signed simply didn't perform at the required level.
Still, few would have expected this season to be so miserable. Ajax are fifth in the Eredivisie; A disappointing situation for a club of its stature, which in most other seasons would be described as a crisis.
However, the low point came in late October when Ajax were humiliated by elected champions PSV, whose 5-2 win that day sent the Amsterdam giants to the bottom of the table. Statistically and emotionally it was their worst start to the season. At this point they had just one win from their first eight games and came a few days after coach Maurice Steijn – a surreal decision from the start; was hired due to a gutsy sixth-place finish at Sparta Rotterdam last season – was sacked.
Ajax had the worst start to the season in its history (ANP via Getty Images)
Since then, things have looked more positive, at least in the league. Under new interim coach John van 't Schip, Ajax are unbeaten in eight games, winning six and drawing two. This means they remain 23 points behind Peter Bosz's PSV, who have exceptionally won all 17 league games so far. But the title is not a realistic goal for Ajax, but rather a continuation of the relative upswing in earnings this year.
This is something they haven't always completely succeeded in doing. They were modestly eliminated from the Europa League in the group stage, winning only once in an admittedly difficult group with Brighton, Marseille and AEK Athens. They now face a playoff against Bodo/Glimt to secure entry into the Conference League.
But the biggest humiliation came in December when Ajax suffered a humiliating 3-2 defeat to amateur fourth division side USV Hercules in the KNVB Cup. Not only was it the first time they lost to an amateur team in the competition, it was also the first time they failed to score at least four goals against one.
However, Van 't Schip managed to distance himself from this particular farce – quite literally, as he missed the game because he was attending his son's wedding in Australia, but that wasn't a big deal for Ajax fans was consolation.
“This is the biggest debacle in the history of Ajax,” said Fabian Nagtzaam from the Ajax fans association. “It feels like a building has collapsed on me, like I’ve been hit by a bus.”
However, it wasn't all bad news: USV striker Tim Pieters, who scored the first two goals, is a medical student and lives in a 12-person shared apartment, all of whom placed a €15 bet on his goal and the USV victory the game at odds of 751/1. Together they won an impressive €150,000.
But to reiterate, things are still not as bleak as they were in the fall, and from Henderson's perspective, this could prove to be as good a move as can realistically be expected given the circumstances.
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Not least because Henderson theoretically fits into this Ajax team quite well. They generally play a 4-3-3 system, which he is obviously used to from his years at Liverpool and in which he could well play either on the right or at the base of midfield.
But perhaps the main reason Ajax signed him is his experience. The Dutch club is known for its youth development and filling its squads with top homegrown talent, although in its most successful teams – the group that won the Champions League in 1995 or the team that reached the semi-finals in 2019 under Ten Hag – there has always been at least one experienced leader to guide the children. Frank Rijkaard took on this role in 1995; Daley Blind in 2019.
That's not really the case this season, especially since the departures of Dusan Tadic and Davy Klaassen, who moved to Fenerbahce and Inter respectively in the summer. Even by their standards, this is an absurdly young team: of the club's 25 players who have played in the league this season, 17 are 23 years old or younger. Chuba Akpom is 28 years old but has no experience of top-flight football, having played most of his career in the EFL. The only player who meets these requirements is 32-year-old Steven Berghuis, but in comparison, Henderson brings a completely different level of experience.
The current crop of young talent is simply not as good as in previous years. Midfielder Kenneth Taylor was once considered the next big thing among homegrown players, but he has regressed. The theory behind signing the 33-year-old Henderson is not just to bring a proven player into the team, but someone who can guide their wayward youth.
Who knows if this will be a good move for Henderson? Perhaps a return to the top following his controversial move to Al Ettifaq will prove to be too much. Perhaps he will get the best out of him playing in the Eredivisie, which probably has a higher general standard than the Saudi Pro League – but well behind the Premier League – and he will succeed. Perhaps he will be revitalized by his role as part player, part mentor.
But it's hard to get past the fact that Henderson has managed to get himself into this dire situation, with a club he wouldn't have looked twice at this time last year, in a poorer league and in an institutional generational crisis , is the best option for the fall of his career.
(Top photo: Neal Simpson/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)