Capture of Dortmund's striker is another killer blow to a Bundesliga rival and Bayern are confident in their methods
Jürgen Klopp never seems to let bad news keep him down for too long. Just minutes after last season's Champions League final, in which Bayern Munich had just overcome Borussia Dortmund by two goals to one, he sat slumped in his chair awaiting the press conference.
"I am proud of my team, but at the moment it's the disappointment that prevails" was what he led with, yet before too long he was back to his usual, hopeful self. "Now we start again … I hope next year we'll have even more quality and the game will move on."
The ambition that had fuelled Klopp and Dortmund was still there, alive and well. At that point Dortmund and their ever-growing range of fans were hopeful for the future. Bayern had won the day, but the underdogs from the western Ruhr still seemed as though they had the youth, the momentum and most of all the talent to keep sparring with Bayern.
Then the summer transfer window came and with it more speculation surrounding the Bavarian club's intent to dismantle the Dortmund side that had undone them for so many years.
Mario Götze had left, among a thousand broken hearts, and now Robert Lewandowski was going too. This was far from what Klopp's side had anticipated for the off-season. Just a few weeks before they had come undone on the greatest of stages and instead of regrouping and building a new side the once charismatic coach and club chairman, Hans-Joachim Watzke, sat down and prepared for a year of damage limitation.
Of course this isn't the first time Bayern had done this to a title rival. Fans of Bayer Leverkusen will watch this saga with bated breath as they remember the infamous 'Neverkusen years' of the early Noughties that saw their own fortune take an unexpected turn for the worse one summer.
In the 2001-02 season, a campaign that has gone down in Leverkusen history as the 'Treble Horror', the club lost the Bundesliga, DFL Pokal Cup and Champions League in a subsequent chain of events that came to conclude half a decade of competition to Bayern's dominance.
That summer Uli Hoeness stole Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto, the spine of that famous Leverkusen side. A few months later the board chose to sack manager Klaus Toppmöller.
Yet the reason Bayern's tactics are so worrisome now, as opposed to 10 years or so ago, is because the Bavarian club are already the best side in European football and already look unstoppable.
The acquisitions of Ballack and Zé Roberto were worrying back then, but things balanced themselves out when Werder Bremen won the Bundesliga just a year later and Stuttgart two years after that. Now, as Bayern announced Lewandowski will be joining in the summer they sit seven points clear in the race for their second consecutive league title and are chasing their fourth European Cup final in just five seasons.
Where Bayern once bullied German football and reached for the ripest fruit from its trees, they now feels confident enough to take on the rest of Europe in a similar manner. Javi Martínez, Pep Guardiola and now Thiago Alcântara are all men who were pursued across the world, yet it was Munich that they were drawn to, just like Bundesliga talent has done for decades.
Klopp will now return to the drawing board, as he did back in May. Bayern have again landed another killer blow, and Dortmund must pick themselves up and try to compete.
Lewandowski's move may seem like the next chapter in the same old narrative that encapsulates modern German football, as Guardiola's side conquer their foes through old methods of attrition. Yet this level of domination is something we've never seen from Bayern. Reported by guardian.co.uk 9 hours ago.
Jürgen Klopp never seems to let bad news keep him down for too long. Just minutes after last season's Champions League final, in which Bayern Munich had just overcome Borussia Dortmund by two goals to one, he sat slumped in his chair awaiting the press conference.
"I am proud of my team, but at the moment it's the disappointment that prevails" was what he led with, yet before too long he was back to his usual, hopeful self. "Now we start again … I hope next year we'll have even more quality and the game will move on."
The ambition that had fuelled Klopp and Dortmund was still there, alive and well. At that point Dortmund and their ever-growing range of fans were hopeful for the future. Bayern had won the day, but the underdogs from the western Ruhr still seemed as though they had the youth, the momentum and most of all the talent to keep sparring with Bayern.
Then the summer transfer window came and with it more speculation surrounding the Bavarian club's intent to dismantle the Dortmund side that had undone them for so many years.
Mario Götze had left, among a thousand broken hearts, and now Robert Lewandowski was going too. This was far from what Klopp's side had anticipated for the off-season. Just a few weeks before they had come undone on the greatest of stages and instead of regrouping and building a new side the once charismatic coach and club chairman, Hans-Joachim Watzke, sat down and prepared for a year of damage limitation.
Of course this isn't the first time Bayern had done this to a title rival. Fans of Bayer Leverkusen will watch this saga with bated breath as they remember the infamous 'Neverkusen years' of the early Noughties that saw their own fortune take an unexpected turn for the worse one summer.
In the 2001-02 season, a campaign that has gone down in Leverkusen history as the 'Treble Horror', the club lost the Bundesliga, DFL Pokal Cup and Champions League in a subsequent chain of events that came to conclude half a decade of competition to Bayern's dominance.
That summer Uli Hoeness stole Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto, the spine of that famous Leverkusen side. A few months later the board chose to sack manager Klaus Toppmöller.
Yet the reason Bayern's tactics are so worrisome now, as opposed to 10 years or so ago, is because the Bavarian club are already the best side in European football and already look unstoppable.
The acquisitions of Ballack and Zé Roberto were worrying back then, but things balanced themselves out when Werder Bremen won the Bundesliga just a year later and Stuttgart two years after that. Now, as Bayern announced Lewandowski will be joining in the summer they sit seven points clear in the race for their second consecutive league title and are chasing their fourth European Cup final in just five seasons.
Where Bayern once bullied German football and reached for the ripest fruit from its trees, they now feels confident enough to take on the rest of Europe in a similar manner. Javi Martínez, Pep Guardiola and now Thiago Alcântara are all men who were pursued across the world, yet it was Munich that they were drawn to, just like Bundesliga talent has done for decades.
Klopp will now return to the drawing board, as he did back in May. Bayern have again landed another killer blow, and Dortmund must pick themselves up and try to compete.
Lewandowski's move may seem like the next chapter in the same old narrative that encapsulates modern German football, as Guardiola's side conquer their foes through old methods of attrition. Yet this level of domination is something we've never seen from Bayern. Reported by guardian.co.uk 9 hours ago.