Jordan Henderson has just agreed to join a new club, move now in final stages

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Former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson finally looks set to end his nightmare stint in Saudi Arabia.

Henderson has reportedly been looking for a way out of Al Ettifaq ever since the January transfer window opened. Having seemingly grown disillusioned with various aspects out in Saudi, the 33-year-old wanted to return to Europe.

There has – probably unsurprisingly – been a fair amount of interest in Henderson. And according to The Athletic, the 12-year Liverpool veteran has now decided his future.

They claim that Henderson has ‘reached an agreement’ with Al Ettifaq to cut short his three-year contract in Dammam, effective immediately. The termination of the England international’s contract is reportedly in the process of being finalised.

Once things are ‘ironed out’ in that regard, it’s claimed that Henderson will then join Ajax on a permanent basis.

The Dutch giants had reportedly been keen to bring Liverpool’s former No.14 in. And as per The Athletic, the move is now ‘close.’

Henderson jumps ship in Saudi

This has been a remarkable – and hugely embarrassing – saga for Henderson. We’re not sure if we’ll ever fully hear his thoughts on everything that went down over the past six months, but we’d really love to.

Was all this worth dramatically ending a trophy-laden, more than decade long stint at Liverpool, eight years as captain?

The answer is almost certainly no. Although Ajax is a super move for him on the back of a failed spell in a poor league, it isn’t Liverpool.

Back home, Henderson had everything laid out in-front of him. He may have been told that he’d no longer be an automatic starter by Jurgen Klopp, but he’d have been a huge part of the squad this season.

From then on, the former Sunderland youngster could have transitioned into an elder statesmen role at Anfield.

Instead, Henderson chose to blow all of that up. There must have been some difficult days for him, as he realised just what he’d thrown away.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that we wish anything ill of Henderson. He’s a Liverpool legend and always will be. Hopefully he can get back to playing at a good level with Ajax and we can see him back at Anfield soon.

But for that to happen, there needs to be some kind of public acknowledgement from Henderson himself of the part he played in all of this. It all could have been avoided. He comes back to Europe with his reputation in his homeland in tatters. That can be rebuilt, but it’s going to take some work.