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Bayer Leverkusen has made a painful but correct decision with the release of coach Erik Ten Hag. A comment.
No other club said goodbye to a trainer as quickly as Bayer Leverkusen in Bundesliga history. Erik Ten Hag’s term of office ends after only two months, but is by no means surprising. The story is reminiscent of that of the former Bayer coach Thomas Hörster.
With the name Hörster you combine very different emotions in Leverkusen. As a player and youth coach, the 69-year-old was now successful, as a coach of the professionals the opposite. In February 2003, Hörster Klaus Toppmöller replaced as a coach of the Bundesliga team. The Werkelf was deep in the relegation battle and slipped towards the 2nd Bundesliga.
A statement that leads to the end
That didn’t get better under Hörster. After ten defeats in 16 games and just under three months in office, he ended again, Klaus Augenthaler, who still led the team to the last meters. What the fans remembered to this day is not the disastrous sporting balance, but the appearance of Hörster. Shortly before his end as a coach, after a 1: 4 against Hamburger SV, Hörster said: “After the performance today, I have to say, I have given up.”
A statement that ultimately cost him the job, but Leverkusen made it possible to stay in the class through the change of coach. The association is in a similar location these days. After only two match days, ten HAG also has to go again. And not only for sporting reasons, but also because of his appearance.
Not just sporting reasons
Now Bayer 04 does not play against the relegation after only two match days and a played point, but it is important to defend the beginnings and to suffocate the disaster in the bud as possible before it spreads.
“A difficult decision,” said Leverkusen’s sports manager Simon Rolfes on Monday to just separation from Ten Hag. But both he and managing director Fernando Carro were convinced that they had to act. “And we did that,” said Rolfes. The separation is also financially painful,
The ex-international did not justify the discharge. Because after a violent change in the squad and only two match days, even after weak performance, no new coach has to fear for his job. At least until the winter, new trainers usually have the opportunity to shape the players into a team and put them on their stamps according to their conviction, especially with as many new and young players as Bayer hired this summer.
Hard but fair
The fact that Ten HAG does not get this grace period in Leverkusen allows the conclusion that it was ultimately not the bad performance that led to this step. Rather, it becomes clear that the problems were especially in the interpersonal area. Whether in dealing with the players, club employees or the media who counted the Dutch early on. According to Rolfes, the “clarity and orientation” at Ten HAG, which are important for the process, would have lacked a harmonizing team.
It was recognized that “that it does not work and cannot work in the future,” said Rolfes. This feeling would not have spread in the past few days and after the first games, but already in preparation. Therefore, it is a “bigger mistake to let it go on”. Such decisions are “perhaps sometimes hard, but also fairer, if you also draw a line at an early stage”.
Good error culture at Carro and Rolfes
Better an end with horror than a horror without end in Leverkusen. For Rolfes and Carro, it is the admission to have been the lucky grade with Xabi Alonso this time when choosing the coaches. To end this collaboration after two match days before the team gets into a possibly unstoppable downward spiral due to the sporting negative experiences, is therefore correct and consistent.
It is clear that this decision at Ten HAG does not necessarily make understanding. The Dutch did not have their say in the official statement of the association. According to Rolfes, Ten Hag, who had signed a contract until 2027, was “surprised and disappointed”. In the evening, the 55-year-old spoke about his consultant agency and spoke of an “unprecedented” separation: “I have the feeling that this was never a relationship that was based on mutual trust.”
The new trainer must also fit humanly
When choosing the new trainer, the Leverkusen club management should therefore make sure that he is able to work in a team. He should be able to take employees and players with him. Because Bayer has lost many top performers this summer, but also set up a squad with a large amount of talent and potential.
It is an attractive task for every trainer to form a successful team from this player material. The new coach will start an attractive job and also celebrate success in the medium term, provided that it also fits humanly.
