1-7! 'Nough said! I love this team and at the moment, it's just pure and utter joy being their fan!!!

Hate Arsenal with a passion anyway, but last night just made it worse...

On the plus side, Liverpool looking as spectacular as ever. And Brendan Rodgers had the cheek to say that they "wouldn't do a Spurs", yet it's pretty much exactly what they are doing!

You a Spurs man? Well the Gunners saved some face, but it was an absolutely lacklustre performance. These last-gasp winners are not ideal. I'd be satisfied with them getting out of the group and not progressing any further. I wish they performed in the BPL and FA cup again;) We certainly don't deserve to make the UCL final.

The Liverpool-Real game was quite spectacular. Liverpool played fairly well I thought, but Real outclassed them. Balotelli's current form is atrocious - I reiterate my relief for Arsenal not signing him.

I guess that's what unlimited money buys in the footballing world!

Unlimited money? You do realise Bayern has no 'owner' like a Russian billionaire or a Sheikh or who knows what (unlike Chelsea, City or PSG). The club is owned by the fan associations! I am basically an owner of that club myself! All the money has come organically. We have ONLY spent 50 million Euros on transfers this summer. Compare that to Real or Barcelona. It's even less than Dortmund spent. So where does this whole 'unlimited' money theory come from? It's just an extremely well run club. "We are who we are" :D

I'm not saying that they are simply successful due to the riches of their owner (like Man City or Chelsea). Yes they're run extremely well, which has earned them a huge amount of money which they have spent well. They now have star names in pretty much every position. They have a huge fan base and huge wages for their players. Most importantly their players are fairly loyal and you have stars like Lahm, Muller, Robben and Ribery who have been at the club for a while, and are continued to be paid generously. Dortmund have had to spend big as their stars get poached by other big clubs (including Bayern) as they are seen as more ambitious or prestigious.

So in other words, Bayern have more than earned their spending power, and their success in domestic competitions and the UCL have enabled them to retain top quality players. They ain't called FC Hollywood for nothing! ;)

KS

That is a very different story from 'unlimited' money. This squad was not built with infinite money but with a great youth academy (Schweinstriger, Lahm, Mueller, Alaba, Badstuber,) and very well targeted transfers, that rarely cost more than 25 million (only exceptions are Goetze, Martinez and Benatia). Our total transfer fees over the last 10 years were less than Liverpool's for example.

The reasons they WERE called FC Hollywood in the late 90s was not necessarily because of the many stars, in fact there weren't that many, but mostly because of the ego of a few. Specifically Juergen Klinsmann and Lotthar Matthaeus. They used to clash and fight and behave like divas so the press labeled them FC Hollywood. Those days are long over though.

I understand that they're in a totally different boat to the rest in that regard, but teams like Liverpool have to pay very large sums for players that Bayern could get for much less as Bayern are considered to be one of, if not the best team in the world at the moment. Everyone wants to play for them. That, coupled with the fact that they are very successful in every competition and that they have a strong and committed fans' association, results in a club that may as well have unlimited money as they can buy any player they want and poach talent from rivals.

I was over-exaggerating in my initial comment. What I was trying to say is that Bayern are in a position that, if they screw up it's definitely not that they lack player quality in any area ;) unlike my poor old Arsenal :sad:

This is going in totally different directions now ... I still think you don't really make sense.
How could Bayern get players for much less? Maybe if we speak about salary, yes, a player would prefer to play for Bayern for 2 million less a year than for Liverpool simply because of the prestige and so on (look at Guardiola, he coaches Bayern for 6 million euros a year less than Chelsea/ ManU would have offered).But when we talk about transfer fees - why on Earth would a team sell a player for less money to Bayern? That does not happen. On the contrary. As I mentioned, two of our highest signings were totally overpriced simply because it was Bayern Munich. Specifically Martinez. I think Martinez was so important when we bought him that he was worth every single cent of those 40 million Euros, but his market value at the point of transfer was estimated at 25 mil. We still paid 40.

Anyhow - coming back to the original point. This IS NOT what unlimited money buys you. Unlimited money bought Real Madrid the champions league title in 2002 with the Galacticos. Bayern won it in 2001 with about a 10th the transfer expenses of Real. That's where the difference is nowadays too, hence my anger about statements like that.
If you said 'this is what a glorious history, top management, an amazing coach and one of the best youth academies in the world gets you' - I would have nodded my head and we could have spared this discussion. I am sure you agree though so all good :)

Though the statement 'that's what money buys you' isn't strictly true, I guess I meant that they have the buying power to do anything, unlike many, many other club. They've been very wise (for the most part) with the money they have too.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make you angry/upset :)

Your right in that I agree. I may not like Bayern (as I follow Dortmund in the Bundesliga), but I respect them a hell of a lot. And knowledgable fans like yourself give your club a good name :) Unlike half the Chelsea/City/Real fans out there at the moment.