How Bayern Munich differ from Manchester City

The last time FC Bayern came to Manchester, they left having eliminated the best team in England from the Champions League. They had already beaten them in Munich, and one fizzling Arjen Robben volley later, Manchester United were ruing the missed opportunity of a third successive European Cup Final.

On Wednesday evening, the German “Rekordmeister” will hope to repeat the achievement. Having already won the group, Bayern have City completely at their mercy; they will be looking to send a clear warning to the rest of Europe’s elite by knocking Roberto Mancini’s side conclusively off their perch. Though less is at stake than in 2010, victory against City would be far more symbolic for an elite club who would portray themselves as the antithesis of everything Manchester City purport. As the threat of Financial Fair Play looms over the most profligate of Europe’s giants, their German opponents are sitting pretty in financial stability, barely able to suppress the smuggest of grins.

While they are battling at a similar level, the attitudes and philosophies of the two teams could not be more different. On the field, City remain a collection of egos -  the farcical Tevez-gate at the Allianz two months ago was testimony to the fact that, for all their incomprehensible wizardry, City are yet to fully gel into a disciplined group – while unity is something that Bayern seem to have in abundance.

That Bayern rely heavily on their star players is no secret. Foreign critics will always point to Robben and Ribéry, though Ottmar Hitzfeld may be closer to the mark in attributing their recent drop in form to the lack of talisman Bastian Schweinsteiger. There is however, another side to Jupp Heynckes’ team. For all their arrogance and complacency, they have a core of young German players who, at their best, work as well in ensemble as any in Europe.

The goals of Gomez, the control of Schweinsteiger and the magic of Robben and Ribéry make up the shiny exterior, but look deeper and you see a tightly knit core of young players, most of whom have been playing together, be it at Bayern or for the national team, for several years. It is the result of progressive culture of squad development over squad assembly, which was started by Louis van Gaal, who fiercely purported the use of young prodigies such as Thomas Müller, and adapted by Jupp Heynckes to incorporate key defensive signings.

Rival fans – particularly those from Dortmund – will undoubtedly protest that Bayern are as much financial vultures as City are. Far from developing their own youngsters, Bayern have spent over 60 million on Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng and Mario Gomez alone, they cry. Even so, these young German talents have all been able to assimilate more quickly on account of their familiarity with their new team mates. Bayern’s callous exploitation of their Bundesliga rivals may be legitimately called into question, but their focus on developing a tight knit, communicative group of young talents rather than a mish mash of oversized egos is an undeniable fact. And, just to rub salt into sky blue wounds, they have done it all within their financial means.

More to the point, despite some excessive expenditure, Bayern are about more than just greedily helping themselves. Protests against Uli Hoeness at the start of the season came as a result of his proposed move to give financial aid to rivals TSV 1860 Munich, who were in danger of being expelled from the league. The move recalled memories of Hoeness and Bayern’s involvement in the 2002 “Save St. Pauli” campaign, which saw the cult Hamburg club return from the brink of the economic abyss to make a brief return to the Bundesliga last season.

It would be wrong to call FC Bayern an example of morality. Their capacity and willingness to poach any young star that a Bundesliga club produces is often intensely frustrating (Manuel Neuer and Marco Reus being cases in point), but they are proof that excessive spending is not the only necessary ingredient in creating an elite football team. It is something that many English clubs would do well to remember, when the cold winter of Financial Fair Play truly begins to bite.

Picture:Getty Images

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