Good read! Why everyone hates Bayern ? ( By The Guardian ) ______________ Its not so much Bayerns financial power that unnerves rival fans as the perceived misuse of their funds systematically to weaken opponents. Hans-Joachim Watzkes recent accusation that Bayern were trying to destroy Dortmund by picking up Götze and Robert Lewandowski served to underline that age-old notion. Its been repeated so often that it has become accepted as a universal football truth by anyone but Bayern themselves. Last year, Götze and Lewandowski played for Dortmund, and they were 25 points behind us, Bayerns ambassador Paul Breitner angrily shot back on Sunday. The reality is certainly a bit more complex. Of the current Bayern team, Götze is the only player who comfortably fits the alleged pattern. It is idle to speculate whether Bayerns and Dortmunds positions in the league would be materially different if that particular transfer hadnt happened. But even if one accepts that the Black and Yellows have ample reason to feel aggrieved, that doesnt account for the weakness of the rest of the field. The two other recent champions, Stuttgart (2007) and Wolfsburg (2009) didnt need Bayern to snatch any of their players to implode within six months of their triumphs. Has Schalkes progress since gatecrashing the Champions League semi-finals in 2011 really been hampered because they sold their goalkeeper to Bayern a couple of months later? No one at Hamburger SV, a club who were wealthier and more successful than Bayern in 1983, has yet blamed three decades of subsequent failure on the sale of Daniel Van Buyten to Munich in 2006. Bremen? Regularly and happily sold to plenty of other clubs, namely Schalke. And whenever the example of Leverkusen, who lost the trio of Lúcio, Zé Roberto and Michael Ballack to Bayern after 2002, is mentioned, its conveniently forgotten that the more pertinent, underlying reason for the breakup of that team was the end of unsustainable cash injections from parent-company Bayer in the wake of the Kirch crisis. Interestingly, Bayerns failures in Europe between 2001 and 2010 were routinely blamed on them buying only the best of the Bundesliga. Now that theyre able to cast their web much wider and rely more on homegrown players, there should actually be a higher number of very good players than ever before left at the other clubs in the league. More are being produced, in any case. The real problem for the Bundesliga, then, is neither Bayerns systematic destruction of their rivals nor their suffocating wealth. Competitive imbalance in financial terms is still lower in the Bundesliga than in Serie A and in Spain, where Real Madrid and Barcelona will pay about 20 times as much for their squad than the smallest team. In Germany, the factor is closer to 13. No, its something else. Unlike the 70s team of Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, who were eminently beatable domestically, and unlike countless other star-studded Bayern teams who routinely found a way to sabotage their own output, the current crop consists of exceptionally motivated professionals who are being coached at a level that is in line with their capabilities. Its a rare, happy constellation, and history suggests it wont last indefinitely. In the meantime, its down to everyone else to raise their game, even if raising the white flag will be seen as the much easier option.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 18:28:56 +0000
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