Bayer Leverkusen have sacked manager Erik Ten Hag after just two Bundesliga matches in charge, the club announced on Monday.
Fired by Manchester United last October, Ten Hag joined Leverkusen as the successor to Xabi Alonso, who moved to Real Madrid.
“This decision was not easy for us. Nobody wanted to take this step,” sporting director Simon Rolfes said in a statement.
“The past few weeks have shown that the steps to build a new and successful team have not been effective,” Rolfes said.
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Club CEO Fernando Carro said the decision was “painful, but necessary”.
The sacking means the 55-year-old Dutchman now has the unwanted record of being the coach to be fired so early into a Bundesliga season, breaking the previous mark of five matches.
Named United manager in July 2022, Ten Hag won the FA and League Cups but was let go after a run of just one win in eight matches midway through the 2024-25 season, the club’s worst start to a campaign in the Premier League era.
Taking over after the most successful period in Leverkusen’s history, with an unbeaten league and cup double in 2023-24 including the first Bundesliga title in the club’s 120-year history, Ten Hag was tasked with overseeing a dramatic rebuild.
Leverkusen lost several core members of the team this summer, including Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka, Jonathan Tah, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli and Lukas Hradecky.
The club did not name a replacement for Ten Hag, saying the “training work would be taken over by the assistant coaching staff for the time being”.
Named Leverkusen manager on July 1, Ten Hag’s first match in charge was a 5-1 drubbing by Flamengo’s under-20s team in a friendly in Brazil.
After a 4-0 win over fourth-tier Sonnenhof Grossaspach in their German Cup opener, Leverkusen claimed one point from their first two Bundesliga fixtures.
Leverkusen let a one-goal lead slip to lose 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim and on Saturday conceded two late goals against a 10-man Werder Bremen to draw 3-3, having led 2-0 and 3-1.
On Sunday, German outlets Bild and Kicker both reported Ten Hag was facing the sack, despite his short tenure at the club.
Ten Hag was tasked with bedding in more than a dozen new signings ahead of this season, including several young players.
The three most expensive signings in the club’s history — Malik Tilmann, Jarell Quansah and Eliesse Ben Seghir — all arrived this summer, for a combined cost of 102 million euros ($120 million) plus bonuses.
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