When Erik ten Hag was unveiled as Bayer Leverkusen’s new manager on May 26, he hailed the prospect of inheriting the Bundesliga runners-up as “an attractive challenge”. It would turn ugly very quickly for the former Manchester United manager.
On Sep. 1, just two games into the new Bundesliga season, Ten Hag was unceremoniously sacked. Never before in the history of the German top flight had a manager lasted only 180 minutes of football, but as Leverkusen’s surprisingly candid upper management subsequently admitted, the doubts began back in pre-season.
A failure to connect with any of his new colleagues, those above and below him in the pecking order as well as the players, is billed as the root cause behind Ten Hag’s humiliating exit by . The detailed report not only outlines how this trust crumbled away as quickly as it was formed, but claimed that Ten Hag’s exit was as expensive as it was historic.
When his salary and compensation fee are taken into consideration, the Dutch boss is thought to have cost Leverkusen €6 million (£5.2 million, $7 million) for two months of work.
