I have some questions for any german football fans here.
- Your thoughts on Bayern as a club and their dominance?
- What is the general thoughts on Bayern Germany wide?
- What do you think of Dortmund?
- Do you ever think Leverkusen could win anything?
- Do you wish that the Bundesliga would be easier to watch in other countries?
1. bayern rule the game over here, economically, and well-deserved so. hoeness et al realised the financial possibilities of a company-like-run enterprise that a proper football club is/can/should be, many years ahead of their domestic(!) competitors. also, their reign should be quite sustainable due to the impossibility of genuine sugardaddy clubs appearing on the scene, like what happened with monaco, city, psg etc - whether VW-backed wolfsburg and/or R(ED)B(ULL) leipzig (promoted to 2nd bundesliga) will manage to actually compete with them in the near future is pretty uncertain imho.
2. bayern are the club with the biggest fan base, so they say, while their stadium's usual lack of frenetic atmosphere is a regular complaint from "real", "authentic", "blue-collar" supporters of "real", "authentic", "blue-collar" football clubs (dortmund, schalke, hertha, frankfurt, what have you). east-german bayern supporters are quite a regular thing, as there hasn't been one competitive club around, for decades that is, and you gotta root for some club, right? also, bayern fans are usually kept for snobby
trophy hunters who aren't really into football.
dortmund fans despise them to the fullest these days, because
mario götze and lewandowski and you gotta be kidding me why don't they buy hummels, gündogan and reus, too, and re-name the club to borussia munich!
i for one despise them only (but very specifically) during their lederhosen-clad oktoberfest folklore. that's a NOPE.
3. the ongoing media-driven bayern vs dortmund feud via tabloids/tv is as cringeworthy as are some of klopp's antics, but the man is a genius so i better shut it.
to me, the klopp style of football is a very refreshing take, which i can see getting adapted all over the place, from good old heynckes to simeone, laudrup, roger schmidt, favre, tuchel, luhukay - these hipster managers implemented and/or adapted huge chunks of it, as did pretty much the whole league. seems like klopp managed to assemble a very functional set of tactical tools for the lesser gifted
blue-collar teams, to some success - because it can be practised and internalized without overly relying on the most sought-after, most expensive types of creative, technically superior players whom you'd need for your fancy possession game.
klopp football preys on an opponent's mistakes rather than patiently exploiting their weaknesses - and it's been delivering astonishing results so far, hence it made everyone aware/envious of their style, their key players, their manager. that's also what makes dortmund
everybody's 2nd club.
4. erm, nope.
leverkusen would be wise to accept a fierce competition for the CL-qualifying ranks, instead of aiming for actual silverware. they just got a hold of a new fancy manager in roger schmidt, their designated
klopp, who had done a great great job for red bull salzburg. but that was the austrian joke of a league, so let's see how schmidt fares in his first season, as a highly praised bundesliga newbie who is supposed to deliver results as of day 1.
whether leverkusen's newly-acquired mega-talents hakan calhanoglu and josip drmic can each take the next step after respectively impressive first seasons at hamburg and nuremberg remains to be seen. both of them could come in very handy indeed and are proven in the league. but then again: in case they come really good, they'll be tempted to try to force a move to a fancier club/city, like losing the services of promising DM talent emre can, who recently agreed a deal with liverpool, which must have been quite a blow though. that was really kinda unfortunate.
on another note: why did schalke loan out kyriakos papadopoulos to leverkusen, a direct rival? this is beyond me - and beyond him, obviously.
so NO, no titles for leverkusen anytime soon, i mean seeing them survive the CL group stage for once would be something quite remarkable.
5. whatever adds to the league's financial competitiveness to other leagues. other than that, i couldn't really give one crap.
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