Pep Lijnders and former Liverpool defender 'considered' to join Pep Guardiola staff at Man City
Former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders has supposedly emerged as a candidate to join Manchester City's coaching staff under Pep Guardiola this summer, alongside Kolo Toure.
Guardiola is set to lose Juanma Lillo, Inigo Dominguez and Carlos Vicens and therefore a new appointment will be required. Lijnders has been without a job since he was fired by Red Bull Salzburg at the end of 2024, and Fabrizio Romano says he is under consideration.
Toure, who played for both Manchester City and Liverpool during his career, has moved into coaching since he retired. He was Wigan Athletic manager for a year and has since returned to the Etihad Stadium to work with the academy teams.
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Lijnders was linked with the vacancy at Norwich City in the Championship earlier this month. He has tried being a manager a couple of times and it hasn't worked but he was a big part of Liverpool's success under Jurgen Klopp.
Arne Slot is also set to lose a coach this summer with John Heitinga, the former Everton midfielder who joined him at Anfield last summer, seemingly heading to Ajax. The Dutch giant is searching for a replacement for Francesco Farioli.
Heitinga has been in charge of Ajax previously. He was at the helm for a caretaker spell in 2023. Though he got the team performing well, no permanent contract offer was presented.
Maurice Steijn was chosen ahead of Heitinga at the time, but he was fired after two wins in 11 games. Now, the Ajax hierarchy would like to bring Heitinga in with Marcel Keizer alongside him.
"If Ajax would be smart they would consider [Heitinga]," Slot said recently. "He is ready to take on a job like that. If John is smart, he would stay here one more season."
Yesterday, Football Insider claimed that Dirk Kuyt is an option to join Slot's staff in place of Heitinga. The former Netherlands international made 285 appearances during his time at Anfield under Rafa Benitez.
Now aged 44, Kuyt has been coaching in Belgium with the second-tier side Beerschot. He guided it to promotion in 2023/24.
However, his other managerial stint, in charge of ADO Den Haag in his homeland, was not as successful. Kuyt lasted less than five months there before parting ways.
"For Arne to win the Premier League in his first season in charge will be something no one will ever forget," Kuyt told The Athletic in March. "It took such a long time for Liverpool to win the championship.
"And then when it happened last time it was a bad time for people all over the world, but especially for Liverpool supporters because they couldn't enjoy the success properly.
"I was really happy when Arne joined Liverpool because I knew what he was capable of after doing so well at Feyenoord. But nobody expected it to go this well, besides maybe Arne himself. He's managed to build on Jurgen's achievements and do it his way."
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