Bayern Are Missing Out!

The Bayern Munich squad had their Oktoberfest priviliges withheld after poor Bundesliga form leaves them an entire 13 points away from the league summit. Uli Hoeness, the club’s president, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the current chairman of Bayern Munich, both had some choice words for the Bundesliga champions on their recent dip in form.

Hoeness was very straight forward about his thoughts on Bayern Munich’s form and their Oktoberfest privileges being revoked:

“The time has now come when we have got to stop covering things over and we have got to be clear about things. The successes in the Champions League are all well and good, but we cannot be happy with the overall situation. We have all got to wake up. We have got to stop walking around in a good mood and whistling to ourselves. Enough is enough. Only eight points after seven games is just not on. Mainz have now got a 13-points advantage and that is catastrophic for FC Bayern. I cannot remember every being so many points behind after only almost a quarter of the season. It looks like last season’s success with the (league and cup) double, the Champions League final and the World Cup in South Africa is giving some of our players vertigo – they don’t seem to have taken it all in. From now on, we cannot kid ourselves.”

Clearly, Louis van Gaal’s decision to schedule training during the Oktoberfest has been very well received by Hoeness, and by so many other powerful Bayern Munich figures. It doesn’t look like Hoeness is at all blaming Louis van Gaal here though for Bayern Munich’s shortcomings, but instead directly placing the blame on the players’ shoulders. Rummenigge was just as straight forward with his thoughts on the matter:

“We have got to be worried about things because we cannot allow ourselves to be where we are. We are in the s**t and we have now got to see to it that we get out. I expect us to compensate our fans for what we have shown in the last three or four games when we face Hannover. This has not been Bayern Munich-like. I know that we are 13 points behind and I also know that this is a historically bad situation, but I am not prepared to alter our goals after only seven games. Now, Bayern Munich must show that we are capable of correcting extraordinary things.”

Rummenigge, like Hoeness, is placing the blame on the players’ shoulders. It’s a sight for sore eyes, really, because most club presidents and higher-ups immediately pull the trigger on their manager in situations like this one.

“We are totally convinced about the philosophy and the quality of the coach. ‘Unfortunately Van Gaal cannot score goals and prevent us from conceding. We unanimously agreed to extend his contract and our opinion has not changed because of a defeat against Dortmund, but we are not happy with the current situation. It is a situation which is causing concern, but I have no problem using the word crisis.”

It looks like Louis van Gaal is safe, but some of Bayern Munich’s under-performing players may not be if this situation persists. It’ll be interesting to see how the players react to having their Oktoberfest priviliges revoked for extra training sessions, and how they react to being slammed in the press so frequently. Tempers could fly, and we all know Louis van Gaal isn’t a man who shys away from drama.