Key Arne Slot man commits future to Liverpool

Milan Keskin

Updated: 4 Jan 2025 11:06 GMT
4 min read

John Heitinga could have left Liverpool after just a few months, but has decided to remain loyal to Arne Slot, according to his agent.

The former Netherlands international is currently an assistant coach at Anfield alongside Sipke Hulshoff but was in the frame to succeed Carlos Corberan as coach of West Bromwich Albion.

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The Spanish coach was appointed as the successor of Ruben Baraja at Valencia last week. However, De Telegraaf reports that Heitinga is not keen on the adventure at West Brom and will remain at Liverpool.

A year and a half after his departure as head coach of Ajax, Heitinga could once more have become the person ultimately responsible. The former defender of Everton and Hertha BSC, among others, has made such a good impression with Liverpool in recent months that he was the favourite to succeed Corberan at West Bromwich Albion.

The Baggies are currently sixth in the Championship and are hoping to qualify for the promotion play-offs this season. With the arrival of a new manager who favours attacking football, West Brom were hoping to have a shot at promotion to the Premier League.

The West Midlands club last played at the highest level in the 2020/21 season and have since had a few lean years in the Championship.

Heitinga to stay at Liverpool

Under manager Corberan, the way up seemed to have been found again, after the Spanish manager managed to finish in the top five last season. The new head coach will therefore be given the task of achieving a return to the Premier League in the long term.

Agent Rob Jansen tells De Telegraaf that Heitinga will remain at Liverpool for the time being: "John will definitely stay at Liverpool this season," says Jansen. Heitinga has the chance to make history at Liverpool this season as part of Slot's technical staff.

The Reds are dominant this season and are at the top of both the Champions League and the Premier League. If Heitinga had decided to become Corberan's successor at West Brom, it would have been a major blow for Slot and Liverpool.

The head coach recently announced in an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad that he was very happy with Heitinga's presence and took a small dig at controversial former Ajax chief Sven Mislintat.

"The fact that Sven Mislintat did not choose Heitinga as head coach at the time and that he left Ajax for that reason, Liverpool is now benefiting from that," said Slot. "They apparently did not realise in Amsterdam that they had an excellent coach in-house."

When Alfred Schreuder was fired from Ajax in January 2023, Heitinga took over as interim coach until the end of the season. Although he would have liked to remain head coach, Mislintat decided otherwise.

Maurice Steijn was acquired from Sparta Rotterdam, which caused Heitinga to leave for West Ham United to become assistant to David Moyes.