Jordan Henderson’s difficult start to life at Ajax is a ‘reality check’ to those who felt the former Liverpool captain and Premier League winner would have a transformative impact at the Eredivisie giants.
That is according to Sjoerd Mossou, the respected Dutch writer pulling no punches as the England international’s wait for a first win in Ajax colours goes on.
Now, Jordan Henderson has always been the sort of player who goes about his business in the shadows. The ‘piano carrier’ in Jurgen Klopp’s rock opera, perhaps. The man who does the dirty work in the background to allow his more glamorous team-mates to dominate the stage.
Perhaps that was lost a little in the excitement that accompanied Henderson’s arrival at an Ajax side crying out for a catalyst, the 33-year-old the sort of player who makes life easier for marquee additions rather than a marquee addition himself.
Liverpool ace yet to have an impact at Ajax
“It’s remarkable because Henderson is just about everything except a typical Ajax player,” Mossou tells Algemeen Dagblad. “A rock-solid controller who is roughly halfway between Mark van Bommel and Timmy Simons, but with a sweet Northern English accent.
“We are about three weeks (after he arrived from Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Ettifaq). And everything has calmed down again. Henderson turns out to be exactly the footballer he has been all his life. Just a footballer. Ajax is still as hopelessly lost as in the months before.”
Henderson has featured four times for the Dutch giants and has not tasted victory even once. After a ‘very mediocre’ start to life in the Eredivisie in the 1-1 draw with runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven, the veteran midfielder again struggled to lift his underperforming team-mates as NEC Nijmegen snatched a point at the death on Sunday.
‘A useful reality check’
“That poor boy can’t help it that he was suddenly elevated to the new Supreme God of the Sons of the Gods,” Mossou adds, insisting that the ‘hype’ surrounding Henderson’s arrival was driven by the desperation of an unhappy fanbase holding out for a hero.
“Let the Henderson hype be a useful reality check for all Ajax players.
“I mean, it’s understandable that you’d be confused by a season like this, as an Ajax fan. And it’s logical that you’d desperately cling to every ray of hope.”
Ajax are now 26 points off league-leaders PSV. Eight adrift of third, they look destined to miss out on a return to the Champions League too.
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