Football philosopher and legendary tactician Arsene Wenger is revered in the football community around the world for his immense knowledge about the game, and almost prophetic comments which may not, at the time, seem like a fair share of undisputed truth but often ends up unfolding as one.
The Frenchman has recently polarized opinion with a very surprising verdict on the current Champions League winners Bayern Munich, as he commented that the present squad of the Bavarian outfit is nowhere near the best Bayern team in history despite setting various incredible records by going their entire European campaign undefeated.
After winning the German Super Cup, Hansi Flick has now won five trophies in 40 games as Bayern manager 🤯 pic.twitter.com/JHnl5iXMxn
Hansi Flick’s dominant treble winners have accumulated countless accolades but the former Arsenal manager isn’t willing to call them the best Bayern Munich team ever: he simply thinks the competition is way too much to deal with.
Wenger remarked, “The 2013 Bayern team was better. The current team isn’t even the best Bayern team in recent years. And not even close to the best Bayern side ever. But I don’t mean to degrade them. They are currently the best team in Europe”. (Spox)
The claim might not sound ridiculous upon giving it a thought: as putting recency bias aside, the current Bayern team might as well be overshadowed by Jupp Heynckes’ treble-winning squad from the 2012/13 season if the two teams were to face off against each other.
Bayern’s Jupp Heynckes has the best winning percentage by a manager in Champions League history. pic.twitter.com/H4Ddxp5ZuW
A star-studded Bayern squad consisting of the likes of Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben won the Bundesliga by a margin of 25 points that season, and they went on to defeat rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the Champions League final.
The same squad went on to win five trophies in the calendar year: while Wenger also refers to Bayern having arguably better squads in their history, with players in the past like Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer and Oliver Kahn amongst their archives.
The ever-respectful Wenger made sure that no hard feelings were reflected as he stated that he has nothing against Flick’s Bayern squad, and congratulated them with the moniker of the best team in Europe at the moment.
Though the other elements of Le Professeur’s comments could be debatable to some extent, this particular one is largely unanimous: very few would oppose the notion that there is simply no greater, and more impressively dominating team in Europe than Bayern Munich right now.
