Jordan Henderson

[dom9]

he went lookin for assurances and didnt get them, he prompted that conversation.

Ironically with Fabinho off, Henderson would have probably started most games as 6 and we wouldnt have signed Endo.

Fair point.

[Sus]

From The Athletic

The speed of Jordan Henderson’s disillusionment reflects how great his regret must be
By Oliver Kay
Jan 8, 2024




When Jordan Henderson sat down with The Athletic in September, five weeks into his Saudi Arabian adventure, he was effusive about the experience.

“I wanted something that would excite me,” the England midfielder said of his decision to leave Liverpool for Al Ettifaq. “It needed to be something that I felt as though I could add value in and (…) try something new — a new challenge and for different reasons.”

Few people believed the “different reasons” extended far beyond money, but despite admitting to the odd surprise when it came to the facilities — and how it was “totally different in terms of culture, living, night-time training, getting to bed late, waking up during the day …” — he was bullish. As he repeated in an interview with Channel 4 News a few weeks later: “No regrets.”

But he is not the first expat to find that the honeymoon period can wear off fairly quickly. The first rumours of disenchantment surfaced in early November: that he and his family were finding it hard to adapt to life in Saudi Arabia (or indeed across the border in Bahrain, where his family are living) and that, professionally, he was struggling with the drop in standard.

It was also suggested at that point that Henderson was committed to sticking it out, partly out of determination to honour his contract, partly out of pride and partly because he would be left with a huge tax bill if, having taken advantage of Saudi Arabia’s flat 20 per cent income tax rate, he returned to the UK at the earliest opportunity.

But his sense of disillusionment has deepened considerably. Henderson wishes to cut his Saudi Arabian experience short and find a new club — ideally in the Premier League but feasibly elsewhere in Europe — while the transfer window is open this month.

It is quite a climbdown, given how fiercely Henderson defended his move to Saudi Arabia, denying accusations that he had sold out both professionally and ethically (as a previously consistent advocate of LGBTQ+ rights moving to a country where homosexuality is outlawed). It is an indication of just how seriously he must regret the move.

What is not yet clear is what kind of escape route might emerge. Initial rumours focus on the possibility of a loan move, potentially to a less high-profile Premier League club, but there is not an abundance of obvious destinations in the January market for a 33-year-old who has spent the past six months playing for a team who lie eighth in the Saudi Pro League.

There are people close to Henderson who were shocked when he signalled he was ready to accept the riches on offer from Al Ettifaq last summer. He had two years left on a highly lucrative contract with Liverpool. Even if his first-team prospects were threatened by the arrivals of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, he was the club captain and an extremely valued squad member.

He told The Athletic that “there were a few things that sent alarm bells ringing”. A conversation with Jurgen Klopp “put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much”. When Al Ettifaq enquired about his availability, Liverpool didn’t rule it out. “That’s not to say they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave,” he said, “but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”

Henderson said he was not the type of character who would be “sitting on the bench and coming on for 10 minutes in games” if his first-team opportunities at Liverpool were restricted. “I knew that would have an effect on my chances for England,” he said.

He has repeatedly talked positively about being sold on the “project” that Al Ettifaq presented to him. But if it can be described as a project, it appears to have been built almost entirely on the allure of Steven Gerrard and the man who succeeded him as Liverpool captain.

Gerrard initially said no when he was offered the Al Ettifaq job in June. But eventually, the club, which was in the process of being taken over by the state-owned petrochemical giant SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industry Corp), made him an offer he evidently could not refuse. He was even allowed to live outside Saudi Arabia and over the bridge in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, a 75-minute drive from Al Ettifaq’s training headquarters in Dammam.

Henderson too found himself unable to keep saying no as the Saudi overtures persisted. He told The Athletic his earnings are far less than the £700,000-a-week ($881,000) sum that has been widely reported, but it was significantly more than he would have earned this season at Liverpool, where his basic salary would have taken a hit after failure to qualify for the Champions League.

He was joining a club who finished seventh in the Saudi Pro League last season with an average attendance of 5,561. Their first league game this season attracted 13,930, but that was against against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. Their second home game attracted just 4,200 fans. Their third drew just 2,281. An average league attendance of 7,854 is less than every club in English football’s top two tiers and 14 of the 24 clubs in Sky Bet League One.

The Athletic’s Simon Hughes was at the Terme Sveti Martin resort in the hills of northern Croatia to report on the surreal scenes of Henderson’s arrival, along with French forward Moussa Dembele and Scotland defender Jack Hendry, in late July. It was a club in the very early stages of an overhaul, staking its immediate future on Gerrard, Henderson and the rest.

Predictably enough, Al Ettifaq are struggling on the pitch. They started well, beating Ronaldo and co in their first game, but the Gerrard-Henderson effect has quickly worn off. Since winning six of their first eight league matches, they have won just one out of 12, dropping to eighth position.

Gerrard has talked of the need for reinforcements this month, but with coach Ian Foster departing for Plymouth Argyle and captain Henderson looking for a way out, whatever “project” there was at Al Ettifaq seems to be unravelling.

As captain at Liverpool, Henderson constantly emphasised the need for the best professional standards — on and off the pitch. Gerrard’s hope was that his former team-mate would be the one driving those standards. It doesn’t sound encouraging if, six months in, the captain wants out.

Nor does it sound encouraging for the Saudi Pro League as a whole. Ronaldo has embraced the challenge, as have Aleksandar Mitrovic and others, but Karim Benzema has had a rocky time at Al Ittihad, prompting rumours of a possible January move, and now Henderson, perhaps the most high-profile signing by a club outside the “Big Four”, is looking for an escape route.

So far, the move to Al Ettifaq has not cost Henderson his place in the England squad. But with the Euro 2024 finals looming, it feasibly could. The form of Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, Liverpool’s Curtis Jones and others, as well as Gareth Southgate’s deployment of Trent Alexander-Arnold as a midfielder, could make competition for places far more intense as the campaign goes on.

Henderson felt in the summer he would not want to drop to a smaller Premier League club the way, for example, his close friends Adam Lallana and James Milner did when leaving Liverpool for Brighton & Hove Albion. The past six months have given him cause to reconsider.

As the Saudi Pro League headed into its winter break, two of Henderson’s former team-mates, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino (now at Al Ittihad and Al Ahli respectively), flew to the UK to see friends and to watch Liverpool beat Newcastle United 4-2 last Monday.
Henderson, his wife Rebecca and their children flew to France for a break in the ski resort of Val d’Isere. It is not known whether he skied (which is prohibited in most Premier League player contracts) but his Instagram posts suggested they had fun.
Yesterday they returned to the UK, where they will spend time catching up with friends and families, for now unsure whether they will be back in the Middle East when the Saudi Pro League season resumes in mid-February.

Quite apart from the culture shock from a professional viewpoint, Henderson and his family have struggled with the move. Karan Trehan, a Manama-based British entrepreneur and real-estate broker, was quoted in The Times last week saying the Hendersons had “really integrated into life here and they love it”. Some of those close to the England player suggest otherwise.

Saudi Arabia is a vast country. It was partly based on geography that Henderson’s former Liverpool and England team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turned down a move to one of the further-flung Saudi clubs (possibly Al Ettifaq, but not confirmed), telling The Athletic that it would have meant “six hours (on a flight) to Riyadh and then change and, if that’s my family visiting, that becomes a different experience.”
In the end, Oxlade-Chamberlain decided that joining Turkish club Besiktas made more sense both from a personal and professional perspective. It has been a turbulent experience, playing under more managers in the first half of this season (three) than in his 12 years in the Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool, but it has been challenging and intense — at times perhaps even too intense, a stark contrast to the swathes of empty seats Henderson has played in front of.

Saudi Arabia had a proud history as a football nation long before its modern-day rulers began to harness the sport’s potential as part of a national and wider global strategy, but there is a difference between Fabinho playing for Al Ittihad, who attracted an average crowd of 40,453 en route to the league title last season, and Henderson playing in front of sparse crowds for Al Ettifaq.

The other significant difference for Henderson was that he has been a vocal, visible campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights in recent years. He has insisted his presence in Saudi Arabia would be a “positive thing” in terms of bringing change, but it would be an understatement to say that this is easier said than done.

In Al Ettifaq’s video to announce his signing in July, images of Henderson’s captain armband — including the rainbow armband he wore in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community — were greyed out. Many people interpreted that as censorship. Henderson responded by telling The Athletic, “I didn’t know anything about it until it was out. It’s hard for me to know and understand everything because it is part of the religion, so if I wear the rainbow armband, if that disrespects their religion, then that’s not right either.”

From Henderson’s perspective, the move looks like a huge mistake. That can happen in football, as in industry, but in this instance, all the various concerns — the heat, the lifestyle, the distance from home, the disruption to family life, the drop in professional status and standards, the risk to his England place, the potential damage to his reputation — were widely highlighted at the time. Henderson weighed up all of that and decided it was still the right move.

For all the dubious “project” talk, the driving factor behind Henderson’s move seemed obvious. To get back to the Premier League so soon will entail significant financial sacrifices as well as swallowing a huge amount of pride. That would be far more in keeping with Henderson’s previous reputation, the one that told us he would be the last player to be seduced by the riches of Saudi Arabia. Funny business, football.

[Liverpool]

By his own admission, he did all that gym work over the summer to get himself ripped and superstrong, only to be told that he'd get less game time at LFC this season.

he went lookin for assurances and didnt get them, he prompted that conversation.

Ironically with Fabinho off, Henderson would have probably started most games as 6 and we wouldnt have signed Endo.

[Rich]

Actually, I think Robbo is in the leadership group too.

Let's face it though, the team is packed full of strong characters all the way through. They wouldn't have come from behind to win so many games without that, even without playing brilliantly.

We've lost that Spurs debacle and couple of dead rubbers in the CL. That's it so far. Amazing really.

[dom9]

Actually, I think Robbo is in the leadership group too.

Let's face it though, the team is packed full of strong characters all the way through. They wouldn't have come from behind to win so many games without that, even without playing brilliantly.

We've lost that Spurs debacle and couple of dead rubbers in the CL. That's it so far. Amazing really.

[Irishnev]

Nope.

There's a new leadership group at the club now and it seems to me that they're doing a sterling job. Let them thrive.

I'm a sentimental fart normally but there's no way that anyone who left in the summer should be returning to the club. In a playing capacity or otherwise.

And as for intelligence. Is there a footballer on the planet who has demonstrated a greater lack of intelligence in the past 9 months as Jordan Henderson? I hate to say it, but I don't think he has any. He's got so much wrong, and so obviously to everyone else too.

I actually pity the poor (not poor) ****er.

[Norbs]

Pity is a strong word for Hendo, but it's the right one for me at least.

By his own admission, he did all that gym work over the summer to get himself ripped and superstrong, only to be told that he'd get less game time at LFC this season.

His fragile ego wasn't able to accept that so he started looking elsewhere.

But he didn't want to play further down the league, and nobody up the league was interested.

Then the Saudis came in with the megabucks, the club said OK - up to you, and he ended up over there amidst a seemingly massive brain fart.

And he comes across as a bit thin skinned to me too.

The leadership group now is VVD, Trent, Salah and Alisson. Not bad. Trent gave a captain's performance yesterday I thought.

Trent's performances this season has been a level above, he's great. He's shouted at more than he gives instruction or drives his team on though from where I see it. Salah has earned his position but again, don't see much in the way of driving his team on. Alisson and VVD are beasts in all ways, totally in charge of on the field matters. Salah and Trent strike me as being a little shy and unimposing. Robbo, Jota and Jones spring to mind as players not afraid to bollock the team for not performing

[John Barnes]

It's an odd part if the world. There's a vast amount of ancient culture and history in the region but they've never been open to tourism or embracing democracy. Oil has changed their fortunes but it all seems plastic and tacky. They'll never grow sport organically when they can just throw vast amounts of money at it

[dom9]

Pity is a strong word. I'd expect deep down he feels a.bit embarrassed but we all know that they're sitting on a.hihe wealth and not many ****s are given about what other folk perceive of him.

FWIW, I was talking about Firmino, but I agree what you mean about the current squad becoming undermined. We are slightly lacking in leaders now though, Trent is great but I don't see him stepping up when VVD isn't on the field. I'd actually put Jones in front of him, not that that would happen.

Pity is a strong word for Hendo, but it's the right one for me at least.

By his own admission, he did all that gym work over the summer to get himself ripped and superstrong, only to be told that he'd get less game time at LFC this season.

His fragile ego wasn't able to accept that so he started looking elsewhere.

But he didn't want to play further down the league, and nobody up the league was interested.

Then the Saudis came in with the megabucks, the club said OK - up to you, and he ended up over there amidst a seemingly massive brain fart.

And he comes across as a bit thin skinned to me too.

The leadership group now is VVD, Trent, Salah and Alisson. Not bad. Trent gave a captain's performance yesterday I thought.

[Angryred]

It's an odd part if the world. There's a vast amount of ancient culture and history in the region but they've never been open to tourism or embracing democracy. Oil has changed their fortunes but it all seems plastic and tacky. They'll never grow sport organically when they can just throw vast amounts of money at it

They should just stick to Horse racing, Golf and boxing as they are easier to manipulate!

[Norbs]

All the money in the world cannot give you the history the foundation and heritage of world football overnight.

It's an odd part if the world. There's a vast amount of ancient culture and history in the region but they've never been open to tourism or embracing democracy. Oil has changed their fortunes but it all seems plastic and tacky. They'll never grow sport organically when they can just throw vast amounts of money at it

[John Barnes]

The Saudi Pro League hasn't had the desired effect or taken off in the way the Saudis had hoped for after all that recruitment in the summer.
Just like the Chinese pro League...their clubs are skint now!

All the money in the world cannot give you the history the foundation and heritage of world football overnight.

[Norbs]

Nope.

There's a new leadership group at the club now and it seems to me that they're doing a sterling job. Let them thrive.

I'm a sentimental fart normally but there's no way that anyone who left in the summer should be returning to the club. In a playing capacity or otherwise.

And as for intelligence. Is there a footballer on the planet who has demonstrated a greater lack of intelligence in the past 9 months as Jordan Henderson? I hate to say it, but I don't think he has any. He's got so much wrong, and so obviously to everyone else too.

I actually pity the poor (not poor) ****er.

Pity is a strong word. I'd expect deep down he feels a.bit embarrassed but we all know that they're sitting on a.hihe wealth and not many ****s are given about what other folk perceive of him.

FWIW, I was talking about Firmino, but I agree what you mean about the current squad becoming undermined. We are slightly lacking in leaders now though, Trent is great but I don't see him stepping up when VVD isn't on the field. I'd actually put Jones in front of him, not that that would happen.

[Pablo]

They all want to escape already. Embarrassing really.

[Angryred]

The Saudi Pro League hasn't had the desired effect or taken off in the way the Saudis had hoped for after all that recruitment in the summer.
Just like the Chinese pro League...their clubs are skint now!