Xavi Hernandez was also linked to the job. I don't know if his wage was too much or the board didn't buy into his ideology, but in comparison among the three coaches, ETH stands out in terms of managerial experience and achievements, and that could be the reason he was hired. However, if I were to pick among the three coaches, I'd have chosen Fabregas. He's doing a fantastic job with Como and I think he'd have done well with Leverkusen. Except he wasn't interested.
I think between the three, Bayer Leverkusen might have gone for the one who might have made signing him easier, Erik Ten Hag is currently out of work and as such I think his deal will be much easier than that of Fabregas who is still contracted to Como and taking him off them might be extra expenses because they need to pay his release clause and possibly that of his coaching crew too but getting out of contract manager might save this expenses.
Although it should have been a clear competition between Xavi and Ten Hag, I think most clubs are seriously having trouble signing Xavi, is he the one that is rejecting many clubs because of their projects? Or it is the clubs that are failing to meet up with his demands? I just know that many clubs had have him on their wish list but turned elsewhere which indicates a problem somewhere.
As for experience, Fabregas is still way below Ten Hag for now because he still with a smaller team and hasn’t managed a top team before which is a huge yard stick, we have seen managers like him fail at top clubs easily this days