New era dawns but Bayern should still be too good for Bundesliga rivals

Is this finally it? Before the start of every season we’re looking for a reason why Bayern Munich might not win the Bundesliga, and it has begun to feel like a vain hope for genuine title competition. In May Bayern were crowned champions for the 10th campaign in a row, and the Rekordmeister has been run to such an exemplary standard that few can see an imminent end to the medley. 

Yet this time there is a new cast running the show, with Oliver Kahn as CEO in a post-Hoeness and Rummenigge world, having to prove his authority in tandem with Hasan Salihamidzic, a sporting director who has never fully convinced. Bayern’s fabled stability has never really rested on who’s on the pitch or even who’s on the bench, but instead has come from higher up. Kahn and Salihamidzic are in the spotlight, and the rolling saga over Robert Lewandowski’s future was as delicate a summer task as could have been imagined for them. 

Bayern always faced a summer of reckoning in 2022, with Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Serge Gnabry and Lewandowski having been set to be out of contract in 2023. There was always going to be an odd one out too. Bayern, not being Barcelona, realise that not everybody can get paid. But when we looked at who the gooseberry might be, few figured it would be Lewandowski.

The writing was on the wall from the point in spring when he was offered a mere year’s extension on the same salary, leaving a scratch on the Poland striker’s ego which never faded, hardening his desire to split. Whisper it, but maybe a more fluid front line is more Julian Nagelsmann’s cup of tea anyway. Nobody is pretending Lewandowski, the scorer of 344 Bayern goals, isn’t a loss, but the signing of Sadio Mané gives Nagelsmann options – a front three with