By Alastair Ryan

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Fons Groenendijk has today decided to resign from his role as ADO Den Haag trainer following Saturday’s resounding 4-0 defeat away to Heracles Almelo. In the meantime, Dirk Heesen, Groenendijk’s assistant, will take temporary charge including possibly Saturday’s game against FC Twente.

The choice was not an easy one for Groenendijk who was the longest serving manager in the Eredivisie, being a part of the ADO furniture since February 2017 stated, ‘The performance has been poor this season and I didn’t have the feeling that I could quickly reverse this’ before further going on and stating ‘Unfortunately not all fairy tales have a good ending. It has been an unforgettable period and I want to thank everyone from the staff, the players, the rest of the colleagues and the fans. I hope together they can ensure that ADO remains in the Eredivisie.’

Alfons ‘Fons’ Groenendijk made his debut in the 1982/83 season at just 18 as a player for ADO in which he has made than one hundred appearances. In February 2017, Groenendijk replaced Zeljko Petrovic and guided ADO spectacularly out of the relegation zone, only losing four times in fourteen matches and the following season he took ADO to the Europa League playoffs for the first time in 7 years where the where subsequently defeated by Vitesse that including a masterclass by future Chelsea starlet Mason Mount. The following year, ADO missed out painstakingly on the playoffs by goal difference of just 3 goals.

However, this season has not been kind to ADO and they are currently sitting in 17th place with just 11 points after 15 games. If there is not an improvement they will be automatically relegated to the Eerste Divisie.