John Heitinga will finish the season as coach of Ajax, the club just announced. Last weekend, Heitinga took over the duties of Alfred Schreuder, who was fired last week, as interim trainer. The experienced Dwight Lodeweges becomes one of Heitinga’s assistants.
Heitinga worked as a trainer of Jong Ajax until Schreuder’s departure, but was pushed forward last weekend to lead the former. On his debut against Excelsior, Ajax won 1-4. With that, the team ended the series of seven games without a win, something that had not happened to Ajax for almost 58 years.
“We are convinced that this is the right solution,” says general manager Edwin van der Sar on the club website. “John follows a careful and gradual path, which has allowed him to develop very well as a trainer in recent years.”
Lodeweges
Now that Heitinga has been told that he can finish the season, he will also have access to Dwight Lodeweges. The Canadian-born has worked for various premier league clubs over the past thirty years and was also an assistant to national coach Ronald Koeman for the Dutch national team. This season, Lodeweges was the trainer of the Harderwijk amateur club VVOG.
The arrival of Lodeweges was also explained by Van der Sar: “His knowledge and years of experience ensure that he is complementary to John and the rest of the staff.”
With fifteen matches to go, Ajax is currently fourth in the Eredivisie. The gap with leader Feyenoord is five points. Ajax is also in the race for the Europa League: on Thursday, February 16, the team will receive a visit from the German Union Berlin.