Erik ten Hag has been sacked by Bayer Leverkusen after just three matches in charge. He was appointed as Xabi Alonso’s successor on a two-year contract in May after the Bundesliga-winning coach left for Real Madrid.
The former Manchester United manager was dismissed on Monday morning following Leverkusen’s 3-3 draw with Werder Bremen on Saturday. Leverkusen surrendered two late goals, including a 94th-minute equaliser, despite Niklas Stark’s second-half red card for Bremen.
Ten Hag’s only home match in charge was a 2-1 defeat by Hoffenheim on the opening weekend of the league season. Jarell Quansah had scored an early opener for Leverkusen before the visitors turned it around. They had beaten the fourth-tier side Sonnenhof Grossaspach 4-0 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal a week earlier.
“A parting of ways at this early stage of the season is painful, but we felt it was necessary,” Leverkusen’s chief executive, Fernando Carro, said in a statement. “We remain committed to achieving our goals for the season – and to do that, we need the best possible conditions at all levels and across the entire first team. Now it’s a matter of fully implementing and utilising these conditions again.”
Leverkusen’s managing director, Simon Rolfes, said: “This decision was not an easy one for us. Nobody wanted to take this step. However, the past few weeks have shown that building a new and successful team with this setup is not feasible. We firmly believe in the quality of our team and will now do everything we can to take the next steps in our development with a new setup.”
Leverkusen was Ten Hag’s first job since being sacked by Manchester United last October. He had previously worked in Germany with Bayern Munich’s B team. The 55-year-old becomes the third former United manager to be sacked in the space of a week, after Ole Gunnar Solskjær by Besiktas and José Mourinho by Fenerbahce.
Since Ten Hag’s appointment in May, Leverkusen have sold key players such as Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool and Granit Xhaka to Sunderland, while Jonathan Tah and Lukas Hradecky also ended their long-term spells at the club. The Champions League side and 2023-24 Bundesliga winners have spent £150m on new players, including Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah, Brentford’s Mark Flekken and PSV’s Malik Tillman, with the average age of arrivals being 22.
