Tag: Erik ten Hag

Bayer Leverkusen have sacked manager Erik ten Hag after two league games in charge, the Bundesliga club said on Monday, with the weekend draw at Werder Bremen not enough to save the Dutchman’s job.

Leverkusen lost their opening league game 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim to put Ten Hag immediately under pressure, and Saturday’s 3-3 draw against 10-man Bremen brings an end to his short reign at the club.

“This decision was not an easy one for us. Nobody wanted to take this step,” Leverkusen Sporting Director Simon Rolfes said in a statement. “However, the past few weeks have shown that building a new and successful team with this set-up is not feasible.”

Ten Hag, who had been out of management since his sacking by Manchester United in October, replaced Xabi Alonso in May, after the Spaniard left to take over at Real Madrid.

Leverkusen finished second in the league last season, after Alonso had led them to the double in the 2023-24 campaign where they lifted their first Bundesliga title without losing a game.

Ten Hag’s task of emulating Alonso’s successful spell at the club was made all the more difficult by the close-season departures of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Jonathan Tah and Granit Xhaka, among others.

His Leverkusen career began with a 4-0 win over fourth-tier side Sonnenhof Grossaspach in the German Cup first round but, with the club already five points off leaders Bayern Munich, and a Champions League campaign on the horizon, Ten Hag has already run out of time.

“A parting of ways at this early stage of the season is painful, but we felt it was necessary,” Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro said.

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“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.”

Before Saturday’s game, Ten Hag had said that he was no Harry Potter, and also spoke of the final days of the transfer window, but that will no longer concern the Dutchman.

“One or two things could still happen on the weekend for us and for the whole transfer market,” Ten Hag told reporters. “On Tuesday we will know what it (the squad) will look like.”

Ten Hag is the first manager in Bundesliga history to take charge of a side in the close season and lose his job two league matches into the new campaign, but there have been shorter reigns in German football.

Jorg Berger was appointed by Arminia Bielefeld in 2009, with the club facing relegation ahead of the final game of the season. Berger’s side drew with Hannover 96 and finished bottom, which was the end of the manager’s spell in charge.

Ten Hag is not the only former Manchester United manager to lose his job in recent days, with Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer parting ways with Turkish clubs Fenerbahce and Besiktas respectively.

The 55-year-old Dutchman had his most successful spell in charge at Ajax Amsterdam, winning three league titles, and also won the FA Cup and League Cup at Manchester United where he was sacked with the club 14^th  in the Premier League standings.

Manchester United hit the reset button again by sacking manager Erik ten Hag with the team mired in mid-table mediocrity and Ruud van Nistelrooy will be in charge for the home Premier League game against Chelsea on Sunday.

Dutchman Ten Hag was fired on after a fourth loss in nine league games left United languishing in 14th place — 12 points behind leaders Manchester City.

Nistelrooy was appointed interim manager until Ruben Amorim reportedly leaves Portuguese side Sporting and takes the reins after November’s international break.

Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals for United, got United off to a victorious start in the post-Ten Hag era with an entertaining 5-2 victory over struggling Leicester City in the League Cup on Wednesday, but Chelsea are a different beast.

Under new manager Enzo Maresca, a young squad have given the Stamford Bridge faithful a glimmer of hope that the London club can return to the Champions League.

Led by the imperious Cole Palmer, who has seven league goals and five assists this season, they sit fifth in the table.

They will also be desperate to improve their woeful record against United — who have lost to Chelsea only once in the last 13 Premier League games.

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Such is Maresca’s attention to detail that the Italian is redoing his homework and analysing Van Nistelrooy’s managerial stint at PSV Eindhoven where he led the Eredivise club to a Dutch Cup title.

“I guess it will be Ruud (who takes charge of United). He’s a friend of mine, we played together, we spent a year together at Malaga and we still have a relationship,” Maresca said.

“We started to watch some PSV games. We’d already watched many Manchester United games. I’m sad for Erik and at the same time happy for Ruud. Hopefully I can see him Sunday.”

Chelsea are also looking to return to winning ways after Newcastle United took revenge for last weekend’s loss by dumping them out of the League Cup on Wednesday, a game where Palmer was rested.

Nistelrooy is hopeful he can stay at United long-term after arriving in the close season.

“I’m helping as long as I’m needed and in the future in any capacity… I’m here to give my everything for the club in any capacity,” Van Nistelrooy said.

The weekend kicks off with Newcastle, floundering in 12th place, hosting Arsenal whose title chase hit a couple of speed bumps against Bournemouth and Liverpool to leave them five points adrift.

While Mikel Arteta will be glad to have William Saliba back from suspension, question marks over the fitness of other defenders remain — including his centre back partner Gabriel — while skipper Martin Odegaard, the fulcrum of their attack, remains side-lined.

Champions City have a one-point lead and they visit Bournemouth, but Pep Guardiola now has nine players on the injury list after their League Cup loss at Tottenham Hotspur.

“I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we’ve never been in the situation with so many injuries,” Guardiola said.

Liverpool, who drew at Arsenal last weekend, have another stern test against Brighton & Hove Albion who have impressed under Fabian Huerzeler. It will also be a rematch of their League Cup encounter where Liverpool came out 3-2 winners.

Unai Emery’s high-flying Villa travel to London to face Spurs who have blown hot and cold this season to sit eighth. They will hope skipper Son Heung-min is fit again after he missed the 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace.

The bottom three of Ipswich Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton will be looking to register their first wins of the season when they play Leicester, Palace and Everton respectively.

Erik ten Hag had the sympathy of managers around the Premier League a day after the Dutchman was sacked by struggling Manchester United, with most saying they could face the same fate any day in the results-driven business.

United have appointed their assistant manager and former striker Ruud van Nistelrooy to take over on an interim basis with the club languishing 14th in the Premier League standings after nine games and 21st in the Europa League table.

Every year, and my dream was to play one day with them, never to stand here talking to you right now.

“I feel very sorry for him, it’s one of the best jobs in football,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said. “There’s only us, it’s not teachers or architects or something like that.

“I wish him all the best and he will come back stronger. If the results aren’t good enough, you get sacked. No-one is different, myself included.”

Liverpool boss Arne Slot said as a fellow Dutchman, Ten Hag’s dismissal hit harder but believes the unemployed coach will land on his feet.

“Always your first thoughts are with the person,” Slot said on Tuesday. “We are all in this job so we know that it can happen, but if it happens – especially because I know him a little bit and I know how much work he puts into it – to get this news for him is a pity.

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“We also know, especially us from Holland how well he did at Ajax (Amsterdam) and he won two trophies over here so we will see him in the near future again at a big club,” Slot added.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said he was not shocked by the news.

“I guess disappointed as it was inevitable with the scrutiny he’d had. It’s the nature of football these days,” Postecoglou said.

The Spurs boss said the intense scrutiny has made it increasingly difficult to do the job in “any sort of processed way.

“It seems like if you look at Erik, (he was) there for two-and-a-bit years and in those two years (he won) trophies – one in each year. If he was here with that record, would he have lost his job? I don’t know. Everyone tells me all I have to do is win a trophy.

“As a manager, you’ve got to hit a sweet spot of success, playing football everyone likes and getting every signing right.”

United host Leicester City in a League Cup fourth-round tie-on Wednesday at Old Trafford.