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Jordan Henderson of Ajax is disappointed after the Dutch Eredivisie match at Groningen on May 14 2025(Image: Pieter van der Woude/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

The party goes on for Premier League champions Liverpool.

But for two former Reds players, there has been precious little to celebrate over the past few days.

Virgil van Dijk will on Sunday week become the 11th Anfield captain to lift the championship trophy with Liverpool having already romped to a 20th title with four games to spare.

The Dutchman is following in the footsteps of his old team-mate Jordan Henderson, who was the skipper when the Reds claimed their most recent previous Premier League crown in 2020, one of seven different pieces of silverware he held aloft - the most of any Liverpool captain.

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Less than a month ago, it had appeared Henderson was set to follow suit at Ajax with whom, having moved to Amsterdam in January 2024 after a brief spell in the Saudi Pro League, he stood nine points clear at the top of the Eredivisie.

But then began a slow slide.

Having lost just two of their previous 29 league games, an alarming 4-0 defeat at Utrecht was followed by a 1-1 draw at home to Sparta Rotterdam, a game for which Henderson was suspended, and a dire 3-0 home loss to NEC Nijmegen.

And on Wednesday evening, the slump was made complete when Ajax conceded a 99th-minute goal to draw 2-2 at Groningen while nearest challengers PSV Eindhoven were beating Heracles 4-1 to claim a sixth successive win - a run sparked by a 2-0 home loss to their great rivals - to move a point clear at the top with one game remaining.

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Henderson cut an angry figure after the final whistle, although he was not part of the brawl that then broke out between players and officials from both sides as emotions ran high in the wake of Groningen's late equaliser.

Ajax finish the season this weekend at home to sixth-placed Twente while PSV are at Sparta Rotterdam, who are 11th.

If Ajax's capitulation has reverberated beyond the Dutch borders - it made headline news across Europe, with one news outlet in Spain declaring "Ajax are definitely descending into hell" - a major blow for one of his former Liverpool team-mates has flown a little more under the radar.

On Sunday, Sampdoria - the former Italian champions who reached the last-ever European Cup final in 1992 before the competition was rebranded as the Champions League - were relegated to the third tier of the Italian league for the first time in their history.

The demotion to Serie C was confirmed on Tuesday with a goalless draw at Juve Stabia.

Victory would have moved Sampdoria, who were in Serie A as recently as two years ago, out of the automatic relegation places and into a play-off.

Fabio Borini, now 34, is part of the Sampdoria squad, although injury has restricted the forward to just 11 appearances.

After only three goals in 38 appearances, he embarked on a nomadic career that included spells at Sunderland, AC Milan, Verona and in Turkey with Karagumruk before returning to Sampdoria two years ago under then boss Andrea Pirlo, who was sacked after a poor start to this season.

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And with the one-time Italy international out of contract in the summer, it could be time for Borini to hang up his boots.