John Heitinga is at the beginning of his coaching journey, but already possesses experiences unlike almost any other 39-year-old coach.
A former Netherlands international defender who played for the likes of Ajax, Atletico Madrid and Everton, Heitinga has linked back up with his former manager David Moyes as he continues carving his own path into coaching.
It is a journey that started back in his home country, back with the Amsterdam club where it began as a professional footballer for Heitinga. He is relishing the opportunity to continue that journey in east London.
“I’m delighted to be here,” Heitinga told whufc.com. “I really like to be on the pitch, to work with the boys. It’s a great opportunity to be here.
“When I spoke to the boss and he asked me to come over to be part of his technical staff, it’s something special to be back the Premier League, in an unbelievably good environment. It’s very good for my development.
“When you finish your career as a football player, you need to find out what you like. For me, my ambition was to be back out on the pitch, to be a coach.
“I can learn a lot here, at West Ham United, in the Premier League. The Premier League is probably for me the best league in the world. You see the quality of the players, and West Ham is a massive Club.”
After retiring from playing at 32 in February 2016, Heitinga was determined to remain involved in football.
What that path initially looked like was uncertain, until the possibility of coaching within the very academy he himself had come through came up. It was there, teaching the next generation of Ajax’s first-team prospects, that Heitinga learned his thirst for competitive football had not dwindled.
He explained: “I didn’t know, as a player, that I would want to be a coach. But when I retired from professional football I knew I wanted to do something in football. I had to find out what.
“I had the opportunity to work in the Ajax Academy. I worked a long time for Ajax, from the moment I retired from playing. I started as the assistant to the U23s, and then was in charge of the U19s. After that, I was head coach of the U23s and, in the last couple of months, I had the interim head coach job.
“When I joined Ajax I actually started with the U11s. After two weeks I went to the Head of Academy and said ‘please take me away’. Working with the kids was nice, but not something that fitted me. Then I was the assistant of the U23s and that was much better. There was coaching and development, but also a push for success.”
Heitinga’s time with Ajax came to an end in the summer, after several months in charge of the first team during a challenging period for the club.
Having helped to steady the ship, the former centre-back moved on, and the chance to once again work with manager Moyes, having played for him for four of his five seasons at Everton, was one that could not be passed up.
The 2008 Dutch Footballer of the Year knows how good working with the experienced Scot will be for his own development as a coach, not to mention the other coaching staff at the Club’s base at Rush Green.
The detailed conversations across the coaching group allow for a sharing of ideas and philosophies; a practice that allows the very best decisions to be made by the manager in the best interest of West Ham United.
Heitinga said: “I know the boss already from when I played for him at Everton, and now it’s nice we are working together in a different way. He’s been very successful, especially last season with winning the UEFA Europa Conference League. He coached over 1,000 games too so, for me to be working here, it’s a great way to get more knowledge.
“You look at the way of playing and how the boss wants the team to play. We all have our ideas and I think we have got a nice way of working, myself and Billy [McKinlay], Mark Robson, Kevin Nolan, Henry [Newman} and Xavi Valero.
“We go into each game as it comes and look at the best way of doing things to make everyone happy. As the staff, it’s up to us to give the boss these ideas to think about. I think with this team, we have a lot of ability. We’ve started the season well, but we can also improve a lot too.”
Being in this environment every single day is helping Heitinga to improve on many different levels, while the 39-year-old is relishing his opportunity to work with Premier League footballers.
“This is so good for my development,” he continued. “When we speak in our coaching room, we talk about different kind of drills we want to do. In the end, of course, the boss makes the final decision, but the discussions are respectful, and everyone brings good ideas.
“In this team, we have a lot of good football players and this allows us to look at different things; what do we want to see? How do we build the attack? How are we pressing? Every game brings a different system that you come up against, so the players need to understand what we want them to do. All of these things form part of our conversations in our coaching room.
“It’s important that football players have fun as well. You need to work hard but, during the session, there can be different kinds of exercises and drills. But the most important thing of all is that everything you’re doing is about winning. For me, it is very important to train how you play and play how you train. Everything in football is about winning so all the drills must have a competitive element. You can do it with all the drills. It brings the competitiveness out of the players.
“Then, on match day, you have to almost start all over again. Each game, you have to prove yourself again. It’s that competitive mentality, and this is the mentality I love.”
In the likes of Moyes, Billy McKinlay and Mark Robson, Heitinga has expert coaching colleagues to learn from, listen to, and share ideas with. It is an opportunity not often afforded to coaches in his position, but it is one he is eager to make the most of.
A perfectionist and a determined worker, he is keen to do whatever it takes to keep the players at West Ham United improving and pushing in the right direction.
“This is a learning process for me,” he added. “I always say that when you’re working in the Academy, you need to make mistakes as well. You need to learn, have a lot of conversations with different people who have experience, and develop yourself.
“You have to keep inventing and reinventing yourself. If things remain comfortable then it can become boring and fall into the same old patterns, which is dangerous. I have learned that I need to continue to challenge myself creatively.
“Also, in the dressing room, it’s important to remember it’s not just the starting XI. Sometimes, if you want to be successful, then it can be more important to think about the players who haven’t started the last game.
“That’s a big thing for me, the challenge of keeping everyone going in the same direction and I’d like to do that in a simple way – by being honest, clear and loyal. It’s up to us as the coaches to make sure there isn’t a difference between the players that play a lot and the players who are playing less.
“We need to provide the tools for them to make the most of their chances. With that, the wants must be turned into a must! You need to find it in yourself, because it won’t come from anyone else. You set your rules and, if you want to be successful and live your best life, then you need to follow those rules. Discipline is making agreements with yourself and then sticking to them.
“There is a winning culture over here and all our lads are very competitive with each other. It’s the same in the gym and that culture helps players to get better. It’s to the benefit of the whole squad if each player improves by five per cent minimum, or even ten or 15 per cent. It’s the collective and, if you can achieve that, you’ve got something special, whether that’s in strength, technical ability, finishing or something else. It’s up to us to make the players better and it’s up to us to make sure there is the right mix involved.”
