Jordan Henderson wanted to be part of it. He felt he deserved to be part of it. And so, despite the obstacles, he put in the hard yards to make it happen. It has been a theme of the Ajax midfielder’s career and it resonates once again with him back in the England squad, winning his 81st cap as a substitute in Thomas Tuchel’s first game as head coach – the 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Albania on Friday night. The more sideways take on it came last summer.
Henderson was devastated to have been overlooked by Gareth Southgate for Euro 2024 in Germany, having been involved throughout qualification. The determining factor was the muscle injury he picked up last March, which sidelined him for the best part of two months and did not give him the time to get fully fit at the end of the domestic season. That was how Southgate sold it, anyway.
When the team with which Henderson had lived so much scrapped their way to the final against Spain, he knew he had to be there. The good news was that Ajax’s pre-season schedule worked out for him. There was a gap. The bad was there were no flights available. Henderson turned to Google Maps. Amsterdam to Berlin by road showed as six hours, 40 minutes. He called a van hire company and thought: “Let’s go.”
“I didn’t know until late doors whether I could go with training or times or schedule,” Henderson says. “But we were off or late the next day so I was able to go. Then, when I found out I could go, there were no flights anywhere. I couldn’t go from England, couldn’t go from Amsterdam. So I looked at how far it was and I hired a van for me and the family and we drove across.”
Just imagine the reaction of the travelling England supporters when they saw Henderson on the various stops en route. “When we needed the toilet or something, or popping in the garages, it was quite funny to see some of the fans,” he says. “Actually, it was quite nice to be with them. Obviously I would have rather been with the team.
“I was watching on the telly and it was hard but all I wanted was the lads to do well and win. I had a good feeling that we were going to win, so I needed to be there to see it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But I was happy that I went to watch them live.”
Henderson is at the start of another journey, brought in from the cold by Tuchel after being ignored by the interim England manager, Lee Carsley, for the whole of the autumn programme. Nobody saw the recall coming, with even Tuchel admitting Henderson was not in his initial thoughts. That was until he began work in January and heard the players and staff constantly talking about Henderson; his influence on and off the pitch. Tuchel got in touch in February and within 15 minutes of the conversation, he realised that he had to involve him.
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The 34-year-old has had a good season at Ajax, who are six points clear of PSV Eindhoven at the top of the Eredivisie with eight games to go. They play at PSV next Sunday. But it has not all been smooth sailing, with a storm erupting in January.
Ajax are beset by financial problems and they were prepared to move Henderson, one of their highest earners, to Monaco. When the news broke, it was interpreted in some quarters as the captain looking to jump ship, turning his back on the club that had rescued him in January last year from his disastrous transfer from Liverpool to Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia.
On 30 January, with Ajax preparing for the Europa League tie at home to Galatasaray that night, the club were so deep in talks with Monaco that Henderson thought he was about to be sold. He said he would play against Galatasaray, to do a job for the team, which he did. But he did not feel comfortable about wearing the captain’s armband, so he passed it to Ajax’s veteran goalkeeper, Remko Pasveer. Cue outrage. Now Henderson was disrespecting the armband. Where was his professionalism?
It led to a lengthy exchange between a frustrated Henderson and the Dutch media after Ajax’s next game – in the league against their arch-rivals, Feyenoord. The whole thing was in front of the cameras, Henderson essentially accusing certain outlets of lies as he explained his side of the story. What helped was that Ajax had just won with a stoppage-time goal from Kenneth Taylor. By then, the club’s board had decided to retain Henderson and everybody would move on.
It is not always easy to be a midfielder of Henderson’s profile at Ajax, the club of Cruyff and lofty ideals. On the other hand, the manager, Francesco Farioli – who was appointed last summer after a dismal fifth-placed finish – is a results-first kind of guy. Henderson is a fit for him and, it must be said, he has been backed by the club’s hardcore supporters.
Henderson does not want to talk about January, when he was also accused of not joining in with his teammates’ celebrations of the goals in the 2-1 win against Galatasaray. Henderson said that was untrue. What he does want to talk about is England and the World Cup dream.
“I never thought it was over otherwise I would have retired [from international football],” Henderson says. “Obviously I was disappointed [at missing the Euros] but I still feel physically fit and I was never going to shut that door. Deep inside, I always wanted to come back. Thankfully I got the opportunity.
“The balance is important in any successful team. The ones that have won in the past, you see the experience all over the pitch. You also need young players coming through, that blend, and I think we have that with this squad.”
Source: theguardian.com
