Arne Slot has already given his verdict on John Heitinga returning to Ajax as manager.

Reports of Heitinga returning to Ajax first emerged last week, something Slot was asked about before last Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace.

Liverpool coach John Heitinga agrees Ajax deal with Arne Slot to lose key cog	Liverpool coach John Heitinga in talks over Ajax managerial vacancy	Liverpool assistant Heitinga in talks over Ajax vacancy

“If Ajax would be smart they would consider him,” the Liverpool boss replied.

If John is smart, he would stay here one more season.”

It’s not the first time Slot has praised Heitinga, who took charge of two first-team matches this season when the Liverpool head coach and Hulshoff were serving touchline suspensions.

“That Sven Mislintat did not choose Heitinga as head coach at the time and that he left Ajax for that reason, Liverpool is now profiting from that,” Slot told Algemeen Dagblad in December.

“Apparently, they did not realise in Amsterdam that they had an excellent coach in-house.”

Former Ajax boss Erik ten Hag has also been considered by Ajax, but he was already negotiating a move to Bayer Leverkusen to replace Xabi Alonso and was not interested in returning to the Netherlands.

Michael Reiziger was another name on Ajax’s list, but opted to extend his stay with the Netherlands Under-21s team.