<p>They came early, as they always do. They pressed up against the fences. They waited. Open practice sessions at Bayern Munich’s training center here are part of the fabric of the club, and the fans ringed the field again last Wednesday morning, some idling for more than an hour (and enduring a soaking by a particularly aggressive sprinkler) in expectation of seeing their stars.<br /><br /></p>.<p>When the players emerged, right around 11 am., the reception was quiet. Some clapping. Some cheers. Some hard stares that may have been closer to glares.<br /><br />It is a strange time at Bayern Munich. Even those inside the club do not seem to know quite how to feel, as one of the season’s goals has been gloriously won (the Bundesliga title), another has been excruciatingly lost (the Champions League) and the coach, Pep Guardiola, is set to depart with a legacy that is more complicated than most had hoped.<br /><br />To most clubs and their fans, such internal conflict might seem specious. But midfielder Thomas Mueller said he understood the emotional clash many may be feeling because he knew that this club is different.<br /><br />Bayern Munich is a juggernaut, German champions a record 26 times. The Bavarians have won four Bundesliga trophies in a row. Three years ago, the club won the German league, the German Cup and the Champions League in the same season, an accomplishment that was, to be sure, incredible. With it, though, Mueller said, was a rise in expectations that may have finally crested over into unreasonable. “Since we won the triple, only the triple is the real goal,” he said in an interview Wednesday in the cafeteria beside the practice fields. “It’s not normal. On our autograph cards, OK, there are just the titles written. But when you are a player and you have to play the whole season, you know it has to be more than just the triple.”<br /><br />He hesitated. “In sports it’s normal to lose sometimes,” he said. “But sometimes I think people forget about those principles of sports.”<br /><br />“Sometimes” may be generous. One need only consider the divergent feelings about Guardiola — who won three Bundesliga titles and went to the semifinals of the Champions League in each of his three seasons here — to understand just how high the bar is.<br /><br />“It’s a special pressure,” Mueller said. “But I cannot imagine right now to live without this pressure. In some moments, it is a bad attitude because in moments like this, it can be too much. But it is part of what makes Bayern Munich what it is.”<br /><br />That drive does not only involve winning on the field. There is a German saying, “Wer rastet, der rostet,” or “he who rests, rusts,” and the club’s front office has long embraced the notion. Motion is constant: Eight days ago, Bayern Munich was knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid. On Saturday, the club clinched the league title with a victory over Ingolstadt. On Tuesday, Bayern Munich’s chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, announced the signings of Mats Hummels, who is captain of Bayern’s bitter rival Borussia Dortmund, and Renato Sanches, a Portuguese teenager coveted by clubs across Europe.<br />It did not matter that Bayern Munich already has players like Mueller and Robert Lewandowski and Manuel Neuer and David Alaba and Jerome Boateng signed for many years. It did not matter that the prices for Hummels and Sanches were high. There was a need to do something, so something was done.<br /><br />Rummenigge was matter-of-fact in his comments on the signings, calling Sanches “a highly interesting player” and saying of Hummels, “Generally speaking, we are very happy Mats chose to join Bayern Munich.”<br /><br />If that sounds cautious, it is because it is. There are two matches left in Bayern Munich’s season, one in the league and then the German Cup final against Dortmund on May 21. That will be Guardiola’s final game before he leaves for Manchester City, and those inside the club have been watching anxiously as the final days of the Spanish coach’s relationship with Rummenigge have been tense.<br /><br />Part of that is simply Guardiola’s nature; he sees his role as that of an overseer, a manager molding a club to his vision for a certain period of time before moving on. That detachment is different from Bayern’s long-held belief that the club is a family that requires investment from everyone, and it has created a divergence that has been an issue since Guardiola arrived.<br /><br />Winning, however, generally salves all wounds. But in this case — and with this club — losing one round short of the Continental final three years in a row has taken the shine off everything else Guardiola accomplished. That is why his farewell is a bit awkward. That is why Rummenigge may have been a bit muted on the new signings — he does not want Guardiola to feel that he and the club are looking past him to the new manager, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, even if the reality is that they are. And that is why some fans were smiling and others were grumbling in the sunshine Wednesday morning.<br /><br />Strange? Perhaps. But such is life at Bayern Munich, where the ball of expectations is forever rolling downhill, making it nearly impossible to ever really control. <br /><br /><br /></p>
<p>They came early, as they always do. They pressed up against the fences. They waited. Open practice sessions at Bayern Munich’s training center here are part of the fabric of the club, and the fans ringed the field again last Wednesday morning, some idling for more than an hour (and enduring a soaking by a particularly aggressive sprinkler) in expectation of seeing their stars.<br /><br /></p>.<p>When the players emerged, right around 11 am., the reception was quiet. Some clapping. Some cheers. Some hard stares that may have been closer to glares.<br /><br />It is a strange time at Bayern Munich. Even those inside the club do not seem to know quite how to feel, as one of the season’s goals has been gloriously won (the Bundesliga title), another has been excruciatingly lost (the Champions League) and the coach, Pep Guardiola, is set to depart with a legacy that is more complicated than most had hoped.<br /><br />To most clubs and their fans, such internal conflict might seem specious. But midfielder Thomas Mueller said he understood the emotional clash many may be feeling because he knew that this club is different.<br /><br />Bayern Munich is a juggernaut, German champions a record 26 times. The Bavarians have won four Bundesliga trophies in a row. Three years ago, the club won the German league, the German Cup and the Champions League in the same season, an accomplishment that was, to be sure, incredible. With it, though, Mueller said, was a rise in expectations that may have finally crested over into unreasonable. “Since we won the triple, only the triple is the real goal,” he said in an interview Wednesday in the cafeteria beside the practice fields. “It’s not normal. On our autograph cards, OK, there are just the titles written. But when you are a player and you have to play the whole season, you know it has to be more than just the triple.”<br /><br />He hesitated. “In sports it’s normal to lose sometimes,” he said. “But sometimes I think people forget about those principles of sports.”<br /><br />“Sometimes” may be generous. One need only consider the divergent feelings about Guardiola — who won three Bundesliga titles and went to the semifinals of the Champions League in each of his three seasons here — to understand just how high the bar is.<br /><br />“It’s a special pressure,” Mueller said. “But I cannot imagine right now to live without this pressure. In some moments, it is a bad attitude because in moments like this, it can be too much. But it is part of what makes Bayern Munich what it is.”<br /><br />That drive does not only involve winning on the field. There is a German saying, “Wer rastet, der rostet,” or “he who rests, rusts,” and the club’s front office has long embraced the notion. Motion is constant: Eight days ago, Bayern Munich was knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid. On Saturday, the club clinched the league title with a victory over Ingolstadt. On Tuesday, Bayern Munich’s chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, announced the signings of Mats Hummels, who is captain of Bayern’s bitter rival Borussia Dortmund, and Renato Sanches, a Portuguese teenager coveted by clubs across Europe.<br />It did not matter that Bayern Munich already has players like Mueller and Robert Lewandowski and Manuel Neuer and David Alaba and Jerome Boateng signed for many years. It did not matter that the prices for Hummels and Sanches were high. There was a need to do something, so something was done.<br /><br />Rummenigge was matter-of-fact in his comments on the signings, calling Sanches “a highly interesting player” and saying of Hummels, “Generally speaking, we are very happy Mats chose to join Bayern Munich.”<br /><br />If that sounds cautious, it is because it is. There are two matches left in Bayern Munich’s season, one in the league and then the German Cup final against Dortmund on May 21. That will be Guardiola’s final game before he leaves for Manchester City, and those inside the club have been watching anxiously as the final days of the Spanish coach’s relationship with Rummenigge have been tense.<br /><br />Part of that is simply Guardiola’s nature; he sees his role as that of an overseer, a manager molding a club to his vision for a certain period of time before moving on. That detachment is different from Bayern’s long-held belief that the club is a family that requires investment from everyone, and it has created a divergence that has been an issue since Guardiola arrived.<br /><br />Winning, however, generally salves all wounds. But in this case — and with this club — losing one round short of the Continental final three years in a row has taken the shine off everything else Guardiola accomplished. That is why his farewell is a bit awkward. That is why Rummenigge may have been a bit muted on the new signings — he does not want Guardiola to feel that he and the club are looking past him to the new manager, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, even if the reality is that they are. And that is why some fans were smiling and others were grumbling in the sunshine Wednesday morning.<br /><br />Strange? Perhaps. But such is life at Bayern Munich, where the ball of expectations is forever rolling downhill, making it nearly impossible to ever really control. <br /><br /><br /></p>