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ERIK YEN HAG: EX-MAN UTD BOSS HITS OUT AT BAYER LEVERKUSEN AFTER UNPRECEDENTED EXIT

Leverkusen’s sporting director revealed that the club had concerns as early as preseason.

Erik ten Hag became the quickest departure in Bundesliga history. / Rene Nijhuis/MB Media/Getty Images

Freshly departed Bayer Leverkusen manager Erik ten Hag accused the Bundesliga outfit of never offering him any “mutual trust” before he was sacked just two weeks into the new domestic campaign.

Ten Hag was relieved of his duties on Monday morning after collecting one point from his first pair of league games. Never before had a manager from Germany’s flight lasted less than three matches—and Dieter Hecking’s previous record was a positive as he got poached by Hannover 96 after steering Alemannia Aachen to a 3–0 win against his future employers in the third week of the 2006–07 campaign.

The omens were grim for Ten Hag throughout the summer. A humiliating 5–1 loss to Flamengo’s U20 side was sandwiched between an exodus of star figures. By the time Leverkusen had given up a 3–1 lead against 10-man Werder Bremen on Saturday, a game which club captain Robert Andrich described as “misery versus misery,” the writing was on the wall for the former Manchester United boss.

Not that he read the signs. “The decision by Bayer Leverkusen’s management this morning to put me on a leave of absence came as a complete surprise,” Ten Hag wrote in a stinging post on his agency’s Instagram. “To part ways with a coach after just two league matches is unprecedented.

Erik ten Hag only returned to management this summer after his exit from Manchester United. / Christof Koepsel/Getty Images

“This summer, many key players who were part of past successes left the squad. Building a new, cohesive team is a careful process that requires both time and trust. A new coach deserves the space to implement his vision, set the standards, shape the squad and leave his mark on the style of play.

“I started this job with full conviction and energy, but unfortunately the management was not willing to grant me the time and trust I needed, which I deeply regret. I feel this was never a relationship based on mutual trust.”

Those feelings were justified. As Leverkusen sporting director Simons Rolfes sensationally revealed 90 minutes after Ten Hag’s departure, the club had discussed sacking a coach appointed on July 1 before this weekend’s collapse in Bremen. “Before we arrive at the wrong destination, we decided to make the decision early,” was the brutal explanation provided.

“Of course, from the impressions from the preseason, from the first few games, we had the feeling that we had to do it now,” Rolfes damningly admitted.

“Throughout my career, every season I have been able to see through to the end as a coach has brought success,” Ten Hag declared in his bitter farewell. “Clubs that placed their trust in me have been rewarded with success and silverware.

“Finally, I would like to thank the Bayer Leverkusen supporters for their warmth and passion, and I wish the squad and staff every success for the remainder of the season.”

- Grey Whitebloom

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LEVERKUSEN THE SOCCER TEAM IS FAMOUS, THE CITY NOT SO MUCH

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 LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — Manchester, Barcelona, Milan, Leverkusen?

An often-overlooked, small German city dominated by the pharmaceuticals industry is making an unlikely case to be considered one of Europe's soccer capitals this season because of Bayer Leverkusen’s historic unbeaten streak.

Coached by former Champions League and World Cup winner Xabi Alonso, the team finished an entire German Bundesliga season without a single loss, the first ever to do so.

The team can finish the season with three trophies if it beats Atalanta in the Europa League final Wednesday and Kaiserslautern in the German Cup final three days later.

It's a big step up for a team that was until recently known as German soccer's perennial runner-up after placing second in the Bundesliga five times.

It’s also a source of pride for this low-rise city of 167,000, which grew up around the factories of the pharmaceuticals giant Bayer – best known for Aspirin and Alka-Seltzer – and has little to draw tourists besides its internationally famed soccer club.

AP Photo

“It's definitely very important for how people identify,” Bayer Leverkusen fan Sebastian Thiel told The Associated Press ahead of the final league game of the season Saturday. “It makes the city special."

Excluding the 30,000-capacity BayArena, Leverkusen is probably best known for a 51-meter-tall (56 yards) illuminated Bayer logo which shines over the city at night.

That logo, the “Bayer Cross”, is on the club's badge, and inspired the club's red-and-black cross design on its kit this season. At a German Cup semifinal game last month, fans even hoisted their own version over a banner depicting the city's modest skyline to mark 90 years of what, for Leverkusen locals, is no ordinary billboard.

“The club, the company, and the city, they’re all connected,” Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes said. “At the weekend, they are fans of football, but during the week they’re working for Bayer. Maybe it’s a special situation you will not find so often."

For an industrial city, Leverkusen can be cosy — perhaps surprisingly so — with single-family houses and small apartment blocks backing onto a park that leads to the BayArena. “More beautiful than people think, but obviously shaped by the big cities around it,” Thiel said of his home town.

Leverkusen was named after the chemist Carl Leverkus, who built a dye factory in the village of Wiesdorf that was later taken over in 1891 by Bayer. Thirteen years later, workers from Bayer founded the sports club that would go on to become famous for soccer. It's been in the top division since 1979, though it had to wait until this season to win its first Bundesliga title.

AP Photo 

“The important thing in Leverkusen, besides the club, for sure is the company,” Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes said. “This city is a bit built around the company and I think it’s really special that that so many people are working for Bayer, for the pharmaceutical company.”

Not everyone sees it that way. Many German soccer fans were delighted to see perennial league winner Bayern Munich beaten, but some are skeptical about the new champion's close ties to Bayer. It's one of two Bundesliga clubs with a formal exemption from so called 50+1 rules mandating control by fans. The other is Volkswagen-owned Wolfsburg.

Squeezed between the larger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, each with their own big clubs, Leverkusen’s fans are outnumbered by their local rivals, though the fanbase has expanded into nearby towns. The team’s heroics under Alonso are winning over more international fans, too.

The German league victory and the Europa League final have elevated Bayer Leverkusen's profile in Europe. The last time Leverkusen played in the final of a European competition was the 2002 Champions League final, which it lost to Real Madrid. Before that, it won the 1988 UEFA Cup, the precursor to the Europa League.

While most of Europe’s top soccer clubs come from big cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Paris, Leverkusen is not the only modestly sized place with a strong team. Its Europa League final opponent Atalanta is from Bergamo, population around 120,000, and 2021 winner Villarreal is from a Spanish city with only around 50,000 residents. French club Lens played in this season’s Champions League with a stadium capacity of 38,000 — more than the city’s population.

For now, Leverkusen’s locals are just enjoying the moment.

“We hoped and hoped and hoped, and it’s happened,” longtime fan and retired former Bayer employee Karl Wallner said.

AP Sports Writer Ciarán Fahey in Berlin contributed to this report.

- JAMES ELLINGWORTH

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Oct. 2022: Xabi Alonso takes over relegation-fighting Bayer Leverkusen

May 2023: Leverkusen finish 6th and qualify for the Europa League

April 2024: Leverkusen become Bundesliga champions for the first time ever

'NEVERKUSEN' NO MORE! HOW XABI ALONSO AND BAYER LEVERKUSEN WON THEIR FIRST BUNDESLIGA TITLE AND ENDED BAYERN MUNICH'S DYNASTY

The Spanish coach has just made history - and in some style - with a team that was battling relegation when he took over 18 months ago

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Former Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Reiner Calmund once said that in the cruel and unforgiving world of football, "You are worth nothing without a title." And his club didn't have one. They just had a nickname: 'Vizekusen', which literally translated as 'Secondkusen'. In English, though, Bayer were better known as 'Neverkusen', the German game's eternal bridesmaids, a seemingly cursed club incapable of escaping its painful past.

In the space of six seasons around the turn of the century, Leverkusen finished as runners-up four times. In 2000, they threw away the title despite only needing a draw in their final game, against SpVgg Unterhaching, a club best known for its bobsleigh team. Bayer buckled under the pressure again two years later, losing two of their final three games to hand the league to Borussia Dortmund.

Leverkusen really outdid themselves in 2001-02, though. A week after their Bundesliga blow, they suffered a demoralising 4-2 defeat to Schalke in the DFB-Pokal final. Four days later, Bayer were beaten by Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League, victims of a Zinedine Zidane wonder-goal.

Manager Klaus Toppmoller had called for celebratory wine and cigarettes after the shock semi-final win over Manchester United but, in Glasgow, he was almost reaching for the painkillers after a terrific team containing great players like Lucio, Michael Ballack and Ze Roberto ended a sensational season empty-handed.

"I am proud of what we have achieved this season, but we have played so hard and it hurts us to end with nothing," he told reporters. "The disappointment is huge - you don't always get the rewards you deserve in football, and no-one knows that better than us after what we have been through. What has happened to us is difficult to take and makes us feel bitter."

Leverkusen would finish second again in 2010-11, for the fifth time in the club’s history, although at least on that occasion there was no devastating collapse. Nonetheless, the ‘Neverkusen’ nickname endured. It became part of the club’s culture.

Bayer continued to produce world-class players. but success remained just as elusive. “The quality has always been there in Leverkusen,” Ballack lamented in an interview with 11Freunde, “but something has always been missing." That something, it turns out, was Xabi Alonso, who has just led Leverkusen to their first ever Bundesliga title with five games to spare.

Getty/GOAL

'Bet he will be good'

On the day that Xabi Alonso brought the curtain down on his illustrious playing career, Pep Guardiola, his former boss at Bayern Munich, lamented the loss of “one of the best midfielders” he’d ever seen - but immediately reassured the world of football: “He will come back soon as a manager and, wherever he goes, I bet that he will be good.”

Alonso hasn’t just lived up to Guardiola’s expectations, though; he’s surpassed them. Indeed, when asked about the job his former charge was doing at Leverkusen, the Manchester City manager simply smiled, paused for a second and then just said, “Wow!”

Jurgen Klopp, meanwhile, has called Alonso "the standout” among the next generation of game-changing tacticians, which is why Liverpool tried to hire him as the German's successor, while Bayern wanted him to clean up the mess Thomas Tuchel is going to leave behind at the Allianz Arena this summer. Given he's now decided to stay at the BayArena for another season, Real Madrid will likely try to bring Alonso back to Santiago Bernabeu next summer. Quite simply, there really is no more coveted coach in world football at the moment.

It’s funny, then, to think that while Leverkusen’s appointment of Alonso in October 2022 was considered quite the coup for the struggling German club, it was also met with some “scepticism”.

Getty/GOAL

'Got to respect him'

“We were in a difficult situation and saw in Xabi a world star, but also an inexperienced coach who had not yet been in charge of a top team,” Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes said of the former Real Sociedad B-team boss. “Nevertheless, I was convinced of his ability from the start - and Xabi was convinced of the quality of our squad.”

Most importantly of all, the players were immediately convinced by the coach. Being a serial-winner played a pivotal role in that regard.

"You've just got to respect him because he's been there and done it,” Jeremie Frimpong told the Associated Press. “He's won everything: Champions League and World Cup. As a footballer, to have a manager like we have, we're very grateful. And he knows how to use the team. He knows our abilities, our weaknesses."

Indeed, while Leverkusen’s potential was obvious as they climbed from second-bottom to sixth by the end of the 2022-23 season, Alonso knew that reinforcements were required. With so many promising players, he had the makings of a great team, but he needed experienced, proven performers.

So, last summer, he welcomed Granit Xhaka from Arsenal with open arms, while also adding veteran winger Jonas Hoffman, a genius free transfer from Hoffenheim, and Alex Grimaldo, who had spent the previous seven seasons winning trophies at Benfica. Alonso was also acutely aware that his team lacked a prolific No.9, so in came Victor Boniface from Union Saint-Gilloise.

In total, Leverkusen spent €90 million (£77m/$97m) on new players, but their net loss was just €20m (£17m/$21m), given the sale of their best player, Moussa Diaby to Aston Villa, had accounted for nearly two-thirds of their summer outlay.

Even more impressively, nearly every new signing was a success.

Getty/GOAL

Coping with adversity

Boniface had only scored nine times the previous season in Belgium, but the Nigerian proved the perfect striker to spearhead Alonso's 3-4-2-1 formation, involved in 24 goals, 16 of which he scored himself, before injury interrupted his season in December.

Losing such a talisman would have devastated most sides - imagine how much worse Bayern Munich would be doing without Harry Kane - but Leverkusen found a way to keep winning, with winger Amine Adli emerging as an excellent alternative up front.

Alonso made excellent use of his full panel of players in the Europa League, and saw Czech striker Patrik Schick slowly but surely rediscover his best form after injury.

Defender Josip Stanisic and winger Nathan Tella also benefited from game time in continental competition, thus emerging as strong starting options in the Bundesliga.

Getty/GOAL

Peak of their powers

The more senior stars also proved their worth as Bayer continued to fight on three fronts, reaching the last eight of the Europa League and the final of the DFB-Pokal while running away with the league.

Xhaka is arguably playing the best football of his career alongside the all-action Argentine Exequiel Palacios. Grimaldo, meanwhile, has featured in more games this season than any other Leverkusen player and, in conjunction with Frimpong, forms the most productive wing-back pairing in world football (48 goal involvements between them!).

After a stunning start, Hoffman's form tailed off a tad in recent months, but he was back at his best in the Europa League win over West Ham on Thursday and has now contributed eight goals and as many assists, while only Grimaldo and the phenomenal Florian Wirtz have created more chances for Leverkusen.

The latter's form has been truly astounding. It was known for some time that Wirtz was a special talent, but the 20-year-old is arguably the best No.10 in Europe right now. As well as scoring 17 goals, he's also created 18 - four more than any other player across the 'Big Five' leagues, which also helps illustrate Leverkusen's outstanding offensive game (only Liverpool and Manchester City have racked up more league goals this season).

Getty/GOAL

'Always working'

However, one of the keys to Leverkusen's rapid rise is their incredible improvement in defence. Alonso inherited a brittle backline from predecessor Gerardo Seoane, one that was conceding an average of two goals a game. However, his switch to a three-man defence proved a masterstroke, revitalising the career of Jonathan Tah, who is now back in the Germany squad, and taking Edmond Tapsoba, Odilon Kossounou and Piero Hincapie to a whole new level.

The net result is Leverkusen are now the meanest team in Germany. They have shipped just 19 goals so far this season, which is 17 fewer than second-placed Bayern, and Tah says the transformation is all down to Alonso.

"The coach is always working on this with us defenders," the centre-back told Die Zeit. "He is not someone who stands on the sidelines, remains silent and watches. [He intervenes], regardless of how prominent a player is. There aren't many coaches who can do that, simply because they weren't able to play football as well as he did!"

Getty/GOAL

'Relationships before tactics'

Club CEO Fernando Carro has also hailed the way in which Alonso's "meticulous, analytical and self-assured approach" has really resonated with the players. But from listening to them talk, it's obvious that there's more to Leverkusen's title triumph than simply following instructions. As Alonso said himself, "The coach has an idea and the players must believe him. This is why human relationships come before tactics."

Tellingly, Grimaldo says that he and his team-mates always remain "loose and calm", no matter the circumstances, because of the confidence that Alonso has instilled in them. That's why Leverkusen are the only unbeaten team left in Europe this season. They've outbattled as many teams as they've outplayed, resulting in a string of late comebacks.

Winger Adli even admitted, "We always have the feeling that we are not going to lose." And they haven't. The team that couldn't win now can't be beaten. They have "soul", as Alonso says, the utmost faith in their football.

"I have not for a long time seen a side that are so confident on the ball, determined, quick and tactically so superb," an incredibly proud Toppmoller said earlier this week. "My former club has a huge chance to put the name Vizekusen behind them."

On Sunday, they did exactly that, by denying Bayern Munich a 12th consecutive German title. The curse has been broken - and while playing the most beautiful football. It's 'Neverkusen' no more, then. Bayer have a proper title now: 2023-24 Bundesliga champions. And this one will last forever.

- Mark Doyle

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