When Ten Hag took over United, he inherited a fractured dressing room and a fanbase desperate for direction. In his first season, he led the Red Devils to a third-place Premier League finish, won the Carabao Cup, and reached both the FA Cup final and the Europa League quarter-finals. But his second campaign unravelled spectacularly. Despite the big-money signings of Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount, and Andre Onana, United slumped to eighth, which was their then-worst finish in the Premier League era. A group-stage exit in the Champions League added further embarrassment. Against all odds, Ten Hag’s side defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final, earning redemption, and the result was enough to convince the board to extend his contract. However, four months later, after losing four of their opening nine league games, United’s patience snapped, and Ten Hag was gone.
If Ten Hag hoped that a fresh start in Germany would restore his fortunes, he was mistaken. His time at Bayer Leverkusen was brief, bitter, and ultimately bruising. He blamed his poor start on the club's decision to sell several of the title-winning stars who had delivered Leverkusen’s first-ever Bundesliga crown. Privately, he is said to have felt "betrayed" by what he described as an "impossible situation".