Jordan Henderson – the serial winner who is now just an idea for fans to hate

The celebrations are in full flow inside an exuberant Villa Park; Aston Villa are 3-0 up and cruising against four-time European champions Ajax. What a night!

OK the visitors may be pretty rubbish, they muster two shots all evening and are 29 points off the Eredivisie lead, but their name still carries more gravitas than 99 per cent of the continent’s clubs. It feels huge.

After maverick forward Jhon Duran’s third goal, which gorgeously kerplunks in off the bar, fans are in party mode. Here come songs about Holte Enders in the sky probably, knowing them.

But no. Instead, the priority is laughing at Jordan Henderson.

“Hendo, Hendo, what’s the score?”

“Der der derrrr, Henderson’s a wanker.”

“One greedy bastard, there’s only one greedy bastard.”

Henderson has not done anything particularly controversial during the game. In fact, he’s not done anything very much at all. He has done a hell of a lot of pointing, but nothing that would normally elicit such a vitriolic reaction. So why so much attention towards the Ajax captain?

Is because of the moral disbandment of his brief foray into Saudi Arabian football after he had previously championed the LGBTQ+ cause? Is it because he was paid a lot of money? Is it because they think he’s rubbish at pointing?

GO DEEPER

Jordan Henderson: I strongly believe that me playing in Saudi Arabia is a positive thing

The suspicion is that if you stopped one of the ‘Hendo’ deriders and asked why they were booing him, it wouldn’t be because they are staunch gay rights activists or even sympathisers. Nor has Henderson particularly offended them personally in any way.

Instead, in the English football lexicon, and to quote incompetent spin doctor Stewart Pearson in The Thick of It, Henderson has gone from “good” to “baaadisimo”.

It is fashionable to boo him, no matter how well he plays or indeed whatever he does on the pitch.

Henderson is no longer a footballer, a Champions League and Premier League winner and 81-times-capped England international. He is just a name, a husk, an idea.

He moved to Saudi Arabia and, like that, he was gone. He became a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night: “Rat on your pop and Keyser Soze Jordan Henderson will get you.”

We did see him in England briefly last year and he was booooed at Wembley. “It defies logic,” Gareth Southgate fumed.

He was booed plenty at Villa Park, too, on his first return to club football in England since leaving Liverpool last summer.

So how did he play against the Premier League’s current fourth best team? And how has he been doing in Amsterdam since moving to Ajax in January?

We’ll tackle the latter question first and the answer is… mixed.

Henderson has started (and finished) eight matches for Ajax so far; five in the Eredivisie, three in the Europa Conference League. After a positive start with an impressive debut during Ajax’s 1-1 draw at home to runaway leaders PSV, Henderson and the team have struggled.

In fact they have won just one of the eight games he has played, at home to Utrecht, having previously picked up 26 poins from 30 available in the 10 league games that preceded Henderson’s arrival.

This is a dreadful Ajax team, one which was rooted in the relegation zone at the start of the season. Despite their winter recovery, they are still six points off a Europa League spot, unthinkable for a club of that size in that league. Henderson has been feted for his leadership (excellent pointing, no doubt) and the stability he can help bring in midfield.

He earned praise for his initial performances. Manager John van ‘t Schip said after his debut: “He has shown that he is fit and important for the team. He helps and coaches the boys, before the game, at half-time and on the field. He also tries to keep calm when he can.”

However as the weeks have gone on, there has been some frustration at what Henderson doesn’t do, like provide defence-splitting passes from midfield or technical brilliance. This is the Netherlands, remember.

Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael van der Vaart offered a brutal verdict on Henderson last month: “They signed players with zero quality. They have brought in Jordan Henderson, who passes sideways and backwards all the time. That doesn’t make anyone happy.”

Again, this is the Netherlands, the land of Johan Cruyff, Dennis Bergkamp and, yes, Van der Vaart. They view football through a different prism.

And yet Henderson’s arrival spawned record Ajax shirt sales – the signing of a player who captained Liverpool last season was seen as a coup.

Famous foreign signings aren’t really a thing in the Eredivisie. Yes, this is the league that hosted Romario, Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the original Ronaldo, but that was because clubs took a chance on young foreign imports and helped turn them into stars.

When it comes to established signings, Dusan Tadic from Southampton and Sebastian Haller from West Ham are as big as it gets. Or players who return home, like Jaap Stam, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dirk Kuyt or Daley Blind. Henderson is an anomaly and, yes, his transfer captured some kind of imagination, believe it or not.

For the more talented players, Ajax are generally a stepping stone to bigger things, like the Premier League or Serie A.

For Henderson, Ajax are a stepping stone to repentance. Most Englishman repent after they have been to Amsterdam; Henderson sees Ajax as his salvation – and a path to the Euros.

However even the record shirt sales were greeted with derision by some, proof of how far Ajax have fallen.

Dutch journalist Sjoerd Mossou wrote in daily newspaper AD that a “submissive, humble Ajax was no use to anyone” and suggested Henderson’s character reflected that.

“Henderson is just about everything except a typical Ajax player,” he said. “A rock-solid controller who is roughly a cross between Mark van Bommel and Timmy Simons, but with a sweet northern English accent.”

Despite his un-Ajax-ness Henderson has been made captain, a role he relishes. Hence the pointing. At Villa Park he points to where the ball should go, he points to where his team mates should run, he points to the away end at full-time so that everyone follows him in a round of applause. He also speaks to the referee. A lot.

His other tasks are to organise his team mates, recycle possession briskly and close down, predominantly, Douglas Luiz in Villa’s midfield, which is turn reduces space for defensive playmaker Pau Torres.

Henderson does this fairly successfully. He can still run (albeit not very quickly because he’s clearly lost half a yard since leaving the Premier League), he is extremely disciplined, his passes are risk-free and, well, he’s absolutely fine. He doesn’t stand out and he doesn’t stink the place out either.

As always with Henderson, you can see exactly why team mates would value his leadership, the fact he takes responsibility and helps others and that he never hides or stops running.

You can also see why a watcher from the stands might question what exactly he’s so good at other than pointing, shouting and running. Anyone can do that, right?

And that’s probably the biggest legitimate gripe with Jordan Henderson: why is he in every single England squad and seemingly guaranteed a place at the Euros?

Is it completely on merit? Is it on footballing ability? Or is he one of Southgate’s favourites who is valued more for things we don’t see behind the scenes?

“Yes, it is good to see him back playing in a league that’s probably easier to assess,” Southgate said on Thursday. “And of course he is playing European football as well, where he had the game against Villa last week, which is easier for us to see the level he’s operating at.

“He has had a big influence on Ajax since he’s been there and I know they are very happy with him.

“We know what he brings, we know the leadership he brings and you saw in the game last week, the game understanding he has, and we must have some balance with all of the attacking players that we have. Hendo is somebody that brings a lot to the team.”

Whatever Southgate says, he will never convince a sizeable portion of England supporters that Henderson is one of the best five or six midfielders England has to offer. Because that just isn’t true anymore.

And then there is the mixed messaging of Southgate advising Kalvin Phillips recently that he should be playing in the Premier League rather than in Serie A for Juventus if he wanted to solidify his England place.

Phillips chose the harder route, has played (admittedly, very) badly for West Ham and was dropped. Henderson went to play at a much lower standard in Saudi Arabia and was still picked.

Captaining the worst Ajax team in living memory may not offer Henderson the redemption he yearns for but, who knows, perhaps the Euros will. Stranger things have happened.

Like it or not, the Jordan Henderson story has more chapters left to write. And the current chapter is called “boo”.

(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)