Van der Vaart furious at Ajax decision to sign 'zero quality' Henderson

Former Ajax and Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart believes January signing Jordan Henderson has "zero quality".

Henderson, 33, swapped a life of luxury in Saudi Arabia for an uphill battle in Amsterdam with the Eredivisie giants sitting outside of the European places under John van 't Schip.

And Van der Vaart — who made 156 appearances for the Dutch giants during his career — believes the club's new captain is not good enough and slammed the decision to sign him.

He said: "Ajax have brought in players with zero quality. The club will now have to see out the rest of the season.

"They have brought in Jordan Henderson. All he does is to play a little pass out wide, or a little pass back, but nobody will be happy with that.

"You'll see on Thursday that they will get through their Europa Conference League tie against Bodo/Glimt with all the luck in the world. 

"Afterwards it's best for them to get knocked out, and to make a fresh start next season. 

"As an Ajax man my heart bleeds. I don't know what I can say about them any more."

After failing to keep pace with Feyenoord in the title race last season, Ajax have had another poor campaign in 2023-24 and sit 26 points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven.

Henderson's arrival was supposed to stabilise De Godenzonen's inconsistency, but so far the England international is yet to win a game in the Netherlands.

This has led to widespread criticism of both the player and team and a defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the Conference League on Thursday will only further dampen the mood in the Dutch capital.