March 2019. Erik ten Hag’s Ajax ripped Real Madrid apart in their own backyard. A 4–1 humiliation, fearless football and a coach who looked untouchable. That night, ten Hag looked like the future of European coaching.
September 2025. The same man has just been sacked by Bayer Leverkusen after only 62 days. Two league games, no wins, a toxic pre-season and a club that decided the gamble wasn’t worth it. From Bernabéu glory to Bundesliga embarrassment, the fall is staggering.
Where did it all go wrong?
Ajax: The Peak
Ten Hag’s Ajax were football’s great disruptors. The 2019 Champions League run felt like a revolution. Relentless pressing, intensity and positional play that overwhelmed opponents. Real Madrid were dismantled, Juventus brushed aside and only Lucas Moura’s last-second strike for Spurs denied Ajax a place in the final.
That squad defined Ten Hag’s reputation. De Ligt, De Jong, Ziyech and van de Beek. All young, all fearless, all thriving in a system that seemed ahead of its time.
Domestically, Ajax cleaned up with three league titles in four years and two KNVB Cups. The style of play looked like a modernised version of total football. Ten Hag’s stock soared. Bayern, Spurs, Barcelona were all linked. He was no longer just Ajax’s coach; he was Europe’s next project manager.
Ajax was the perfect environment to deliver his vision. They had a conveyor belt of talent, a patient board and a league with space to experiment. The real test would come outside the Dutch bubble.
Manchester United: Cracks Appear
When United picked Ten Hag in 2022, he was the “unanimous choice”, chosen ahead of Mauricio Pochettino and Julen Lopetegui. The brief was clear. Rebuild the culture, play attacking football, trust the youth and bring back the aura lost since Ferguson.
Year one was encouraging. A League Cup win secured United’s first silverware in six years. Champions League football was delivered with a top-four finish. Marcus Rashford had his best season in front of goal. The dressing room, bruised by years of drift, began to look more united. Ten Hag even appeared to tame Cristiano Ronaldo, until the infamous Piers Morgan interview ended that story.
But the cracks arrived quickly. Jadon Sancho was exiled and Antony struggled. Endless debates were held over whether United actually had a style. Casemiro, initially transformative, soon looked worn down. And then came the defeats. The 7-0 defeat at Anfield remains one of the darkest days in United history on the pitch.
By year three, the optimism had turned. Dressing-room splits resurfaced, senior players questioned his methods and there was chaos above him.
When he finally left, United were 14th in the league and facing another European failure. Whilst many fans wanted him out by the end, his classy farewell message was well-received and he left Old Trafford with silverware and a relatively intact reputation.
Leverkusen: The Failed Reset
Leverkusen should have been a clean slate. A modern club with a strong infrastructure entering a transitional period following Xabi Alonso’s departure. For ten Hag, it was the chance to prove Ajax wasn’t a one-off.
Instead, it went wrong from the start. In pre-season, he pushed for a rescheduled friendly in Brazil. A trip the players didn’t want, the board didn’t back and ended in humiliation. The 5–1 defeat to Flamengo’s U20s got things off to the worst possible start.
On the pitch, results never came. A scratchy DFB-Pokal win against a fourth-tier side was unconvincing. The opening day loss to Hoffenheim and then the collapse at Bremen sealed his fate. Two games into the Bundesliga, he was gone.
Behind the scenes, it was worse. Ten Hag clashed with the board over transfers. Furious at the sale of Jonathan Tah, he was resistant to cashing in on Granit Xhaka. He questioned the squad’s fitness despite running the pre-season himself. Players described his team talks as flat. Before Hoffenheim, reports say he didn’t even give one.
Leverkusen had been Alonso’s stage. The Spaniard was charismatic and will forever be remembered as the man who took them to their first ever title. Ten Hag felt like the complete opposite. Distant, rigid, never convincing.
Where Next?
After his dismissal, Ten Hag released a statement: “Clubs that placed their trust in me have been rewarded with success and silverware.” At Ajax, that’s true. At United, you could argue it, briefly. At Leverkusen, he didn’t last long enough to chase one.
From outclassing Real Madrid at the Bernabéu to being dumped before the first international break, Ten Hag’s career has become a case study in how quickly reputations can fade.
The climb took years; the fall took weeks.
