Pep Guardiola has tough act to follow at Bayern

So, that which has been so touted and discussed and debated for the past few month, dear readers, has come to pass and my what a sequence of events have taken place since. After the news of Pep Guardiola coming to Bayern broke, Bayern won the treble, poached Mario Götze from Bundesliga rivals Dortmund, defeated a Götze-less Dortmund in the CL Final, watched Jupp Heynckes retire after a truimphant campaign and have seen Dortmund stubbornly refuse to sign off on the acquisition of Robert Lewandowski, who just as stubbornly refuses to play anywhere but for Munich next season under Pep.

*phew*

And that’s just the start of it, dear readers. Jan Kirchoff is loving life on the one hand, knowing he is coming in to the best club in world football at the moment, but ruing the competition for starting time he will face in defense next season. Arjen Robben, recently solidified as a permanent hero in the hearts of Bayern fans alongside Franck Ribéry, is still wondering “Should I stay or should I go?” Rumours are still rife about all the talent who want to come to Munich, but with a pretty packed squad as it is, the transfers out will be as telling as the transfers in.

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk has said he will be moving on, wanting to have one or two good seasons in the old age likely as the hometown hero back in the Ukraine. Trust, dear readers, having seen with my own eyes the man and the adoration he gets from the media in his home country, Tymo has stayed as long as he could and been a brilliant teammate throughout, but it’s time for him to be the man somewhere else rather than a rarely used spare in Munich.

Luiz Gustavo will have to think long and hard about his future given that the arrival of Mario Götze and a new coach may spell the end of his playing time with Bayern despite having developed into an excellent holding midfielder since coming over from Hoffenheim. His aggressive play, pinpoint passing and tireless running have made him a true nuisance to play against and losing him to a Champions League rival may prove to be more fatal than most would expect at first glance.

In essence, dear readers, FC Bayern, who are still aiming to reap in more silverware and make it a handful with 5 trophies or more before the next campaign begins. There is, after all, a German Super Cup to consider, the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea and the Audi Cup which Bayern make a point of pride of winning on an annual basis.

So, even for the “Blessed” Pep Guardiola, he has a mighty tall order of business to contend with coming into this Bayern squad. Nowhere are the expectations higher in World Football at the moment than at FC Bayern right now. As passionate as Bayern fans are, we are terribly critical and, much like our players, tend to have a higher than average footballing IQ.

Though fans, by their very nature, allow their passions to sometimes cloud their judgment, Bayern fans expect success on all fronts from their team, and no greater fans exist at FC Bayern than the brain trust of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Uli Hoeneß and Franz Beckenbauer, Guardiola’s new bosses.

You see, Dear Readers, when you “manage” Bayern, you are not doing so in a completely autonomous way. You must consult with and work with “The Bayern Board”, which is spear-headed by the three aforementioned Club Officials. Not only are THEY involved, but at Bayern, Jogi Löw’s ear is often close to the ground. Past Bayern greats like Gerd Müller are still involved with the team’s youth development and help groom the players.

Guardiola is truly and stranger in a strange land, which is why he has been dedicated up to 4 hours a day to learning German for the past six months or more, dear readers. Pep Guardiola may have cruised to a dominant period of play for Barcelona, establishing them as, perhaps, the best club football team to date in the history of the game, but do not mistake me when I say, as I have said for many years now, that Bayern are quickly establishing themselves as worthy of consideration into that category.

With the plethora of talent they have amassed that are signed up to 2015 – 2016 for the most part, what they have accomplished in the past 5 years, and what they stand to accomplish in the next 3 years, Bayern just might, if Guardiola does his job and leads this team to the “Triple Triple”, the unheard of dominant string of victories where they collect every piece of significant silverware imaginable and toss their competitors aside in some memorable victories, particularly in the Champions League, then this FC Bayern taem WILL become the greatest team in the history of Club Football.

This, however, is a mighty large “if”, dear readers, and to the Bayern Board, this is not an “if”. This is a “When”. Now, that being said, the pressure is on Guardiola to produce results, and to produce them immediately. As I mentioned to a friend over Twitter literally moments before the news of Guardiola’s hiring became public, only Bayern have the luxury of being able to hire and then fire someone like Pep Guardiola.

Yes, dear readers, I said it. NO ONE since Ottmar Hitzfeld, to the best of my knowledge has survived a three year stint at FC Bayern. In the euphoria of the hiring, no one has stopped to consider the possibility that Pep Guardiola might, like Jürgen Klinsmann, struggle at FC Bayern. There is a case to be made for both scenarios, dear readers; that of success and that of failure.

On the one hand, Guardiola walk into a club which possesses many players he long coveted at Barcelona. Philip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Luiz Gustavo, Manuel Neuer; there is no need to scour your mind and lose hair over trying to acquire this talent. They’re yours. For life, if you want them in all but Gustavo’s case, and if Gustavo gets to play, he is happy to stay as well.

The acquisition of Mario Götze is an absolute luxury, providing them with an embarrassment of riches as far as attacking midfielders are concerned with Kroos, Götze and Müller all on board. Robert Lewandowski is ready to join the squad once Dortmund accepts the fact that they cannot stop it from happening. Rumour has it that Guardiola is steadily dedicated to making Tottenham Hotspur an offer they simply CANNOT refuse for Gareth Bale, and with the roughly €300 million or more Bayern have to spend since winning the Champions League title, why not?

They COULD throw money at Edison Cavani, but Lewandowski wants to come to Bayern and that’s all that matters. Sure, Mario Gomez is likely leaving for Fiorentina but Gomez needs to go be the man SOMEWHERE while Pizarro and Mandzukic get “Deputy Poacher” duties behind Bayern’s next big snag.

Keeping all this in mind though, dear readers, all this movement and speculation will cause some unsettling of the players in the clubhouse. Not only will there be the hangover of the treble victory to contend with, but as people come and go and speculate about their futures, keeping the lads focused so they can hit the ground running will not be easy for Guardiola.

Whether or not a man from a different footballing culture and who speaks a different language takes over the hottest team in the world and tries to keep them firing on all cylinders and dominating the opposition for the next three years remains to be seen. It would be on hell of a feat for ANYONE to accomplish, dear readers, but if anyone can achieve this feat who is not Jupp Heynckes, public opinion seems to think that Pep Guardiola is the man who can do it.

Only time will tell, dear readers, but weighing all the possibilities and seeing the facts for what they are, as an early prediction from Your Humble Narrator, I must concur with my original gut-instinct reaction to the news of the supposed hiring. Pep Guardiola will be a great find and a great acquisition for this team, but if anyone has the luxury of sufficient expectations and demands of its team to be able to fire Pep Guardiola, it’s FC Bayern.

Only time will tell us what the end result will be, but it’s going to be a VERY interesting period of transition for the FC Bayern faithful, as it is hard to tell where the team will go from here. There’s nowhere to go but down, dear readers, and hopefully, Pep has enough magic tricks up his sleeves to keep this team on the top for the next 36 months.