A year after the fairy tale of Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten march to the Bundesliga crown, the story now reads very differently. The club that stunned Europe with its style and resilience has been stripped to its core, and into that void steps Erik ten Hag a coach carrying both the weight of Leverkusen’s recent history and his own battle-scarred reputation.
Saturday’s Bundesliga opener against Hoffenheim will mark the beginning of a new chapter, one where the old cast is largely gone. Xabi Alonso, the mastermind of last season’s double, now commands Real Madrid, having taken his trusted backroom staff with him. The exodus didn’t end there: Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka, Jonathan Tah, Jeremie Frimpong and Lukas Hradecky players who symbolised the club’s golden run have all departed, leaving behind a shell of that dream side.
What remains is a project under construction. Young arrivals like Jarell Quansah, Malik Tillman and Ernest Poku offer promise but little guarantee. It is into this uncertainty that Ten Hag steps, seeking not only to rebuild Leverkusen but also to repair his image after a turbulent stint at Manchester United.
For Ten Hag, the job is as much about restoring himself as it is about restoring Leverkusen. His reign at Old Trafford brought silverware in the FA Cup and League Cup but ended in noise, criticism and questions about whether his methods could stand at the very top. At his unveiling in Germany earlier this month, he made clear that quick fixes are not his style. “You can’t sail today on the wind from yesterday,” he said, brushing aside comparisons to Alonso’s achievements.
He also injected realism into the conversation. “No one is Harry Potter, building a team so quickly and being successful at the same time. That’s not how top-level football works.”
His first competitive outing offered a glimpse of both promise and patience. Leverkusen swept aside fourth-tier Grossaspach 4–0 in the German Cup, though not without signs of rust and even a bizarre 45-minute weather delay. Afterward, Ten Hag was candid: the processes were not yet in place, but time would do its work.
Time is perhaps the one luxury Leverkusen can offer him that Manchester United could not. Jurgen Klinsmann, once at the helm of Germany, the USA and Bayern Munich, believes this is precisely the setting where Ten Hag can succeed. Speaking last week, Klinsmann urged patience but expressed belief in the Dutchman’s qualities. Leverkusen, he argued, must recalibrate expectations. Another title run is unrealistic. The goal now is Champions League qualification, perhaps a strong cup campaign, and credibility in Europe.
“Erik absolutely has the knowledge, the charisma and the capabilities to do really well,” Klinsmann said.
And so, as the new Bundesliga season begins, the question is no longer whether Leverkusen can repeat the impossible. It is whether Erik ten Hag in rebuilding them can also rebuild himself.
