Erik ten Hag has been sacked by Bayer Leverkusen in a humiliating twist for the former Manchester United manager, Fabrizio Romano reveals.
Ten Hag’s bad luck continues
Ten Hag was dismissed by INEOS last October following a 2-1 defeat to West Ham which left United stranded 14th in the Premier League table.
The Dutchman was replaced by Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim, who took over the helm at Old Trafford a few weeks later, with Ruud van Nistelrooy acting as interim manager in between.
Amorim endured a torrid debut campaign in England, however, failing to improve his new side from where Ten Hag left them as the Red Devils limped to a dismal 15th-place finish and their worst season in the Premier League era.
Ten Hag’s tenure as United’s boss was a bizarre one given the success he enjoyed in his first year in Manchester, overseeing a comfortable return to the Champions League after finishing third and winning the Carabao Cup – the club’s first trophy in six years.
But where the 2022/23 campaign was a roaring success, the following season was a disaster with a combination of an unrelenting injury list and Ten Hag’s awful tactics leaving United in eighth.
The FA Cup proved the straw which saved the camel’s back, however, as United triumphed at Wembley over rivals Manchester City to win the final 2-1 with a fantastic team performance.
This victory was essential to INEOS’ eventual choice to keep Ten Hag in place with a one-year contract extension after a number of potential replacements, including Amorim, were explored.
The 55-year-old manager was then backed heavily in the transfer market with over £200 million spent – but it proved an unwise decision as INEOS reversed their decision just five months later, quickly leading to the appointment of Amorim.
Ten Hag took the rest of the year to consider his next option with a return to Ajax mooted as well as the prospect of taking over at Borussia Dortmund.
But, earlier this summer, it was a different German side who moved for the Dutchman, with Leverkusen appointing him to replace Xabi Alonso, who left to join Real Madrid.
However, with the 2025/26 season still in its infancy, Die Werkself have taken the extraordinary decision to relieve Ten Hag of his duties, with just three games gone.
Sacked in the morning
Romano reveals Ten hag has been “sacked by Bayer Leverkusen” with the decision made by the club’s hierarchy this morning.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Erik ten Hag has just been SACKED by Bayer Leverkusen.
Decision made by the club’s hierarchy this morning and manager informed right now. pic.twitter.com/WjraNnhntA
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 1, 2025
Tweet: “EXCLUSIVE: Erik ten Hag has just been SACKED by Bayer Leverkusen. Decision made by the club’s hierarchy this morning and manager informed right now.”
Leverkusen are currently 12th in the Bundesliga after two games, having lost the season opener against Hoffenheim and drawn against Werder Bremen in the dying moments on Sunday, despite Bremen being down to 10 men.
But there were thought to be deeper issues behind the scenes between the manager and the executive branch over the footballing identity, or lack thereof, he was attempting to instil.
And this clearly reached a crescendo after last weekend’s disappointing result and performance with Leverkusen wasting no time in matching a decision INEOS reached last year.
Ten Hag joins the other ex-United managers who have lost their jobs in the last week after both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho were sacked – by Besiktas and Fenerbahce – showing the curse which has engulfed Old Trafford in the past decade is not an easy one to escape.
Featured image Octavio Passos via Getty Images
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Darragh Fox
Darragh is a writer for The Peoples Person who spent three years as a history graduate slowly realising football was by far the most interesting thing to write about.
