Pep Lijnders, Vitor Matos and Peter Krawietz, accompanied by Jürgen Klopp, will leave the AXA Training Center after the season, but unlike the manager, the assistants have not said they want a break.
Now there is information once again that Lijnders is in the running as the new manager, and that he can take Matos with him in the support apparatus. In the past, it has not been the most reliable sources that have reported on this, but now Paul Joyce in The Times, Chris Bascombe in The Telegraph and several others report the interest from the Dutch big club.
In that case, they will be reunited with Jordan Henderson, who was brought to Ajax from Al-Ettifaq in January. Ajax must have consulted with Lijnders before they chose to sign the former Liverpool captain.
Lijnders has tried his hand as a manager once before, at NEC Nijmegen in 2018, but he ended up resigning after just a few months. Since then he has been a very important contributor as Klopp’s number two, and all the trophies picked up under the German’s leadership have come with Lijnders at the club.
John van ‘t Schip is employed on a temporary basis at Ajax after Maurice Steijn was fired in October. The club has had a difficult season. They have been knocked out of Europe and are in a disappointing fifth place in the Eredivisie.
Lijnders is also still some way up the list of current Klopp replacements with the odds favourites. But the Dutchman is not relevant – he is going to leave Liverpool this summer anyway.
Tags: Klopps assistants relevant Ajax
