Is the Empire really fighting back?

After eleven years in the championship, FC Bayern will most likely end the season without a big party at Munich’s Marienplatz. An almost forgotten feeling for the long-time winner, which may have far-reaching consequences. Does the rest of the football nation have to tremble now?

At least this is the view held by Union icon Christopher Trimmel, who is already excited to see Bayern’s reaction next season: “It won’t be fun for German football.”

True to the motto ‘The Empire strikes back’, it’s probably not just the Austrians who fear that the record champions will become the dominator again. But how likely is an FCB revenge campaign really?

Of course, the series of titles to date and the extremely successful history of the club alone speak for the resurgence of the subscription champions. Time and again we have met our own high standards. However, many aspects also indicate that Bayern, who are still looking for a coach, will also have a difficult time in the coming season.

After Xabi Alonso’s recently announced stay at Leverkusen and the home defeat against BVB, it is clear that the competition should not be underestimated next season either – even if Bayern are still far and away at the top of the Bundesliga in terms of financial strength become.

Not least because of the turbulent times with all sorts of personnel changes at management level, Bayern need a change, which the new sports director Max Eberl should lead.

However, this is not in its final stages (and also depends on the search for a trainer), but is only just being initiated. Bayern legend Uli Hoeneß recently added that they are on the “good path”. BR24 However, at least in the short term, we don’t see Bayern returning to their former strength. “It will perhaps take two or three years until things are back to their former glory,” the 72-year-old urges patience with unusually humble words.

Although FCB will be the favorite to win the cup again next season, a gap as significant as in the past eleven years is not expected. Because everything that has gone wrong in recent years needs time to be put right again.

Because the financial power of Munich is also at stake, Eberl must first secure its supremacy in this area. As a result, according to the Sports picture a new salary structure will be introduced. Base salaries of around 20 million euros, like those received by Harry Kane, Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané, Joshua Kimmich, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry, will no longer be available for so many players in the future.

Alphonso Davies is feeling the brunt of this at the moment, but it is also likely to be an issue in upcoming talks with Sané (contract until 2025) and Kimmich (also 2025).

“We are not in the land of milk and honey, we cannot paint the world as we like it: we have to face reality,” Eberl recently said in the Sports picture with regard to possible mega transfers in the summer. The possibilities are “not limitless”, which is why on the one hand they are dependent on sales and on the other hand they want to increase the focus on talent and the difficult development of young players.

It is not without reason that there is a saying that the biggest mistakes are made in times of greatest success. Bayern were able to avoid this for a long time and thus put together what Hoeneß described as an “abnormal” series of championships, although last season’s lucky championship was probably not the wake-up call they had hoped for.

Things were completely different twelve years ago, when BVB became champions twice in a row in 2011 and 2012. The FCB made the right adjustments – and rose to a level beyond the competition.

“We will continue to strengthen our team until we are alone again,” Hoeneß announced at the time, with a reference to the large financial resources, before he gave Borussia two absolute key players in Mario Götze (2013) and Robert Lewandowski (2014). laughed off. Sebastian Kehl – now BVB sports director, then a player – said looking back that Bayern’s supremacy had been scratched, which had “led to the Munich team rethinking and upgrading”.

“Subconsciously everyone does a little more, especially if you don’t have a title for two years. Maybe BVB drove us there,” shared Toni Kroos in 2013 – who was still at Bayern at the time – with this view, as did Kehl’s coach at the time, Jürgen Klopp. “We irritated Bayern extremely for two years and made sure that they were completely energized,” the former BVB coach emphasized after Bayern scored an incredible 91 out of 102 possible points (Bundesliga record) the following season .

This time it will be more difficult. On the one hand, there is the financial issue described, and on the other hand, poaching from competitors is no longer a given. As the decision of preferred coaching candidate Alonso recently showed. And it is also very likely that Leverkusen’s superstar Florian Wirtz will stay with the Werkself.

Dortmund, another competitor, is also in good form again after a weak first half of the season, while Bayern first have to fill the coaching position for the coming season.

So Eberl has a lot of work waiting for him. Of course, it is also clear that his squad already has an amazing collection of excellent footballers. If the right coach is found, a new winning streak is anything but unthinkable.

So whether there will really be great revenge for two turbulent and disappointing years in the following season is still up in the air.