A packed Allianz Arena witnessed yet another shambolic display from the “Rekordmeister” as Bayern could only muster a 1-1 draw, leaving them in seventh place in the table and already six points off pacesetters Leverkusen going into December.
Vice-Captain Lahm – who has already been handed a record fine this year for a previous outburst – hit out once again after Bayern couldn’t take three points at home.
It’s an interesting predicament, but one that many Bayern fans have seen developing over a longer period of time.
After their summer recruitment Bayern looked to have a formidable team on paper with Robben and Ribery in the wide areas and any of Gomez, Olic, Toni & Klose through the middle but as the old saying goes; “games are not won on paper”.
The galaxy of start names cannot gel into a star team and inevitably, money was spent bolstering the attack when it was the defense that really needed reinforcement, especially with the departure of Lucio.
So where has it all gone wrong?
Three words: Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Hoeness
The three Amigos, best buds, who have been around for a long time, not just in footballing circles but down at Säbenerstrasse, it would seem they are as old as the furniture:
1. Beckenbauer – played with Bayern for 18 years, has been President for 15 years and has had two stints as manager
2. Rummenigge – 10 year playing career, 11 years as a Vice President and a further 7 as chairman
3. Hoeness – managed 86 goals in his 239 appearances over 8 years at Bayern, an incredible 30 years as general manager and next week, he will (more than likely) take over from Beckenbauer as President of FC Bayern München.
Three men, three hall-of-famers, 100 years of loyal work for the club between them, three men who wield vast amounts of power in the politics of football, three men with a love of the limelight who are never short of a quote for the media.
That pretty much sums it up.
That Beckenbauer created the libero position or Hoeness played a huge part in shaping modern day football’s finances are irrelevant, there are three old men at this club who love it to death but can’t keep their mouths shut.
After Lahm’s initial display of unhappiness – which admittedly should have been kept behind closed doors – Rummenigge showed him who is boss stating: “Philipp Lahm will therefore be fined an amount which has never been sanctioned by FC Bayern before.”
Then, just before the game against Leverkusen, two of the three Amigos thought it pertinent to publicly criticise the coach, a coach who but 5 months ago they selected to lead the club forward, noting that he should delegate more responsibility – another way of saying he should listen to their views on team selection.
Then there is the comment from Hoeness regarding the relationship between the current manager and Luca Toni: “There is certainly a problem between player and coach.”
Hardly a show of solidarity there, and yet another comment that should never have made it into the papers.
That’s just a few of the more recent comments and this is no “trend”. For years the three amigo’s have aired Bayern’s dirty laundry in public and Beckenbauer has been the worst offender with his column in Bild – Germany’s biggest tabloid – as well as various TV commentary gigs.
He has far too often come out and told all and sundry what very few should actually know – what he is thinking.
Bayern won’t win anything this season, despite their large investment. But the fans will flock back to see new faces next year.
Still, as long as Beckenbauer, Rummenigge and Hoeness have their fingers in the pie, Bayern will go nowhere.
It’s time for a cleanout.
All three have done their bit for an amazing club, but now they are taking them in the wrong direction. There are plenty of other legends who can take the club forward.
The question is, can they admit that a good thing has come to an end?
AndyRoo
Guest
I do support Greg’s campaign for greater recognition of defenders. They are not all dirty shirt pullers and watching a good sweeper is something I miss. There is a trend towards playing one offensive centre back and when watching live football I enjoy watching these types of players picking when they go forward.
Art Sapphire
Guest
Greg - I present Exhibit A - Maradona as greatest footballer ever. http://www.sportphotogallery.com/Photos/Football/Diego-Maradona/Diego-Maradona-v-Belgium-1982-1619809_10.aspx The Belgians knew they did not stand a chance. No other footballer struck so much fear into his opponents with the ball at his feet.
Darwin hammer
Roar Rookie
I think it's a fairly well held view that Pele and Maradona were a cut well above the rest and it's a purely personal perference who you rate higher ... the rest follow by some distance ... I find it incredible that Beckenbauer get a mention here - yet Moore hasn't been raised - the 2 of them were neck and neck during their respective careers ... and then what of Best - where does he fit into the great scheme of things - surely the equal of Cruijff etc
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
AS - you pretty much undermine your own argument when you say that DAM is the only one of these players you saw in his prime - how then can you possibly compare him with the others? (Incidentally, I write this as one who shares the same birthday as DAM and who also regards him as the best player I have seen ... and my father actually took me to see Pele at the Sydney Sports Ground in 1970, not to mention that I watched the 1974 World Cup on TV as a 10 year-old kid ... but I would hardly say that I had mature sporting judgement back then!). I suspect that like most football people you have almost unavoidable bias towards goal creators and goal scorers when it comes to making judgments about who is or was best. Indeed, for this reason it's almost impossible to make comparisons between Beckenbauer and the others. However I for one am not prepared to eliminate players like him, Maldini and Cannavaro (to name a few more modern examples) simply because of the positions they played. Similarly with goalkeepers. Perhaps there should be separate categories, across which one never tries to compare. But at the end of the day that is not entirely satisfactory. The implication of putting goal-scorers and -creators at the top of these lists is that the best football players always play in these positions. It is true that the best kids do tend to play in the front half of a team, but (1) this does not apply to all the best kids, and (2) often such kids move back in position as time goes on (from memory this describes Beckenbauer's trajectory). Incidentally, on the topic of goalscorers I have never understood why Gerd Müller does not rank higher. His goalscoring statistics for both Germany and Munich are phenomenal by any measure (from memory they are second only to Pele's). And it's not as if he played for Munich at a time when German football was weak (has it ever been?). So what if Müller was not the prettiest on the field - I thought football was about getting the ball in the onion bag? (as Tommy Smyth with a Y would say). It has always seemed to me that Müller has suffered in appraisals because he doesn't have a glittering and/or larger-than-life personality, as do Pele, FB, JC, DAM, etc. I also remind you of a point I made earlier: you can't just judge DAM on his fabulous highs as a player. He also had a lot of lows. Exactly as a batsman's ducks must be counted in his cricket average, so also with DAM's lows.
Art Sapphire
Guest
Greg - its pretty hard to take IFHHS seriously. Diego - for me is the greatest player I have seen. Not old enough to have seen the other players in their prime. But there is no way how our mate Franz can be ranked above Diego. Here is their IFHHS currnet ranking of the top 20 clubs in world football. You gotta laugh! 1. (1.) Manchester United FC England/4 326,0 2. (2.) FC Barcelona España/4 298,0 3. (5.) FC Shakhtyor Donetsk Ukraina/3 293,0 4. (3.) Chelsea FC London England/4 283,0 5. (7.) Hamburger SV Deutschland/4 274,0 6. (4.) Club Estudiantes de La Plata Argentina/4 265,0 7. (8.) SV Werder Bremen Deutschland/4 263,0 8. (6.) Arsenal FC London England/4 245,0 9. (10.) Cruzeiro EC Belo Horizonte Brasil/4 231,0 10. (12.) AS Roma Italia/4 228,0 11. (12.) Galatasaray SK İstanbul Türkiye/3 222,0 12. (18.) Olympiakos Pireas Greece/3 215,5 13. (14.) Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense Brasil/4 212,0 14. (11.) FC Bayern München Deutschland/4 209,0 15. (22.) FC do Porto Portugal/3 204,0 16. (14.) Olympique Lyonnais France/4 201,0 17. (17.) Juventus FC Torino Italia/4 195,0 18. (9.) Liverpool FC England/4 194,0 19. (20.) FC Twente Enschede Nederland/3 187,5 20. (19.) FC Internazionale Milano Italia/4 185,0
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Freud, but look at those IFFHS points: Pele 1705, Cruijff 1303, Kaiser 1228, Di Stefano 1215, DAM 1214. Next best is Puskas 810. So one might as well say that it's Pele first, then the next four all equal second. Definitely one can say that the points of 3-4-5 are within noise of each other, i.e., they are equal third. I don't think too many people would be uncomfortable with such rankings. Moral of the story: the points tally is more important than the rung on the ladder. Also DAM may have had some exceptionally high highs, but he also had a lot more lows than the other four. The lows cannot be ignored when assessing overall performance, even if there is a reason for them.
Daniel
Guest
Excellent stuff, Freud. And in case you have watched Bayern vs Haifa tonight - have you seen Lothar Matthäus sitting next to KHR...It reminded me of Heynckes sitting next to Uli Hoeness at the Schalke match at the end of last season...
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
It's hard to take the IFFHS seriously when they list Maradona as the 5th best footballer of all time, behind Cruijff, Beckenbauer & Di Stefano : http://www.iffhs.de/?42d03e32a16f43809fa3c17c13c09e20a15ff3c09f32b17f7370eff3702bb1d20bb6e28fc380de43110f83d00e06 - they obviously work closely with FIFA (I saw Warner in one of the first pictures I saw) and we all know that Maradona and Argentina aren't exactly near to the hearts of FIFA. Beckenbauer obviously was an amazing player, had an amazing career and has done some amazing things, his crowning achievement must surely be being one of only two men to win the WC as both a player and a manager. He is a national hero, his part in Germany's history will never be forgotten as the WC's he has bought them have been extremely important for rebuilding the nation. Problem is, he won't leave the limelight, at 64 he's still relatively young but he is far too prominent, constantly in the papers, on tv, in commercials, in Munich you'll often see posters advertising this or that and none other than the Kaiser is attending. He's got his finger in a lot of pies but people find it hard to criticise the man, even when he destablises Bayern, fans religiously follow his comments and agree with him without second thought.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Thanks Freud - I enjoyed the tz-online article. There's nothing wrong with egomania - after all, he is a Kaiser! - if the egomaniacal ideas are on the money. I freely admit that it could be the case that in the 15 years since I stopped following Beckenbauer closely, age has caught up with him and his ideas are now generally wide of the mark - in that case egomania is a big problem. However I prefer to live nostalgically in the past and think of the Beckenbauer who is the only man to have won the IFFHS's "Universal Genius of World Football" award (see http://www.iffhs.de/?38cdc3380f05f94e02691a55685fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aeedb88106).
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Art, looks like for once I might concur. Chelsea don't deserve to win the EPL this year but then again, how deserves it more? Man United have played like crap all year, Arsenal are too hot and cold and while they are nice to watch they aren't champion material, Liverpool are a joke, City will not be able to build a season and Tottenham are Top 4, not Top 2 material. Sure the title race might be more open this year but when the teams are ordinary then it's not as interesting. As for Bayern, well they are a team that people love to hate so of course people are enjoying their downfall.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Greg, I think you've just highlighted the problem by saying they "walk on water". They are legends of the club, the kind of bloke that everyone listens to and that's the problem, they keep on talking and everyone keeps on listening. Look at the recent instability in the coaching ranks, where does it stem from? Beckenbauer mostly, he just can't help himself, he's a real egomaniac. Rummingge just has no idea and Hoeness, overrated by you and he'd say his worth is way under-appreciated, he loves trying to sound smart in the media. Then again, what he has done for Bayern's finances, well it's been that incredible that the fans can't help but love him, he has bought them so much success for so long and they are in a financial state of bliss mainly thanks to him. I found a tidbit in the following quite interesting: http://www.tz-online.de/sport/fussball/fc-bayern/hoeness-mein-leben-tz-534103.html He was trying to work his way into the Dassler clan, as you know the Dassler's (particulary Horst) were the trailblazers for finances in football, I'd love to know how much of what Hoeness did were his own ideas and how much of it he was told by other people.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Freud, Since I'm coming to live in Germany next year, you need to know that Beckenbauer and Rummenigge both walk on water in my opinion. Admittedly this opinion may need revising, as I have not followed them closely for the last 15 years, having left Germany in 1995. But until I see evidence that satisfies me of their decline, I will live on in the past! However Hoeness you are right about: I always thought he was overrated. One of my favorite lines from KHR, after Germany was beaten by Denmark in the final of Euro 92: Co-commentator: "How do you feel about that?" KHR, angrily: "How do you think I feel? We've just been beaten by a country that has fewer people than we have registered football players." Best line ever on FB, by Mehmet Scholl after Munich won the 93-94 Meisterschaft with the great man as caretaker coach: "Dem Mensch gelingt alles."
Art Sapphire
Guest
Everyone else iin Germany is enjoying the Bayern Munich soap opera. May it continue for a while longer. Unlike the EPL where it looks like it Chelsea's to lose. Picking the winner of the Bundesliga is a different matter altogether. Leverkusen 27 Bremen 26 Schalke 25 Hoffenheim 23 Hamburger 23 Mainz 22 Bayern 21 Wolfsburg 21