Losers in Lederhosen

With nineteen Bundesliga titles to their name, Bayern Munich are used to lording it over the rest of the league. Munich haters often refer to their new stadium, the Allianzarena as the "arrogance arena," and Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer once dismissed the UEFA Cup as a competition for losers.

But the UEFA Cup -- and not, as is customary, the Champions League -- is precisely where Bayern would be if the season ended today. Five points behind third-place Stuttgart, once-mighty Munich will struggle to salvage anything from this season.

And the prospect of seeing the Bundesliga's titan drop into the ranks of the also-rans for the first time in more than a decade has many fans rubbing their hands with glee.

The tabloid Bild newspaper described the team as "idiots" and "losers in lederhosen" after their desultory performance in Stuttgart. And the BZ newspaper wrote: "They used to brag that they were stronger than ox. But now they're the ones getting gored."

Throwing money at the problem could be a problem

Bayern's bosses have already said they will revamp the squad in the off-season, and bloggers on throughout Germany are relishing the prospect of seeing the Bundesliga's richest club have to break open the piggy bank.

Bayern's biggest need, everyone agrees, is a creative midfielder. Neither Mark van Bommel, who's more of a workhorse, nor Bastian Schweinsteiger, who's more comfortable on the wing, have been able the play the role previously filled by Stefan Effenberg, Mehmet Scholl and Michael Ballack.

But if Bayern are only competing in the UEFA Cup next season, it's unlikely that they can attract a top international playmaker -- no matter how much they loosen the purse-strings.

And the typical Bayern strategy of luring away players from other Bundesliga sides may not work either. The best playmaker in the league, Bremen's Diego, has already said he's not interested in offers from Munich. Schalke's Lincoln and Hamburg's Raphael van der Vaart have made similar statements.

Rebuilding or regression?

Bayern will start to try and salvage the season this weekend at home to Hamburg, but it's an uphill battle. Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld says he hopes he will have seven or eight new players with whom he can stage a comeback next year.

But even some Bayern fans are questioning whether Hitzfeld, who led the club in its glory years around the millennium, is up to the job.

"For me he's the wrong coach to clean up the club," wrote one blogger. "On the contrary, he fits perfectly with the current system."

Bayern brought back Hitzfeld this February to replace Felix Magath, but his record has been worse than his predecessor's.

And some fans blame management for poor personnel decisions. "I don't think the magical troika (of Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Franz Beckenbauer) know how the club should develop," another disappointed supporter wrote. "It never occurs to them that they might be to blame for things not going well."

When commercial manager Uli Hoeneß cautioned Bayern fans at beginning of the 2006-7 campaign that this would be a transitional season, most supporters thought he was being over-cautious. Now they know better.

"A 'transitional season,'" one fan sighed in an Internet post. "All well and good. But at the moment, it looks to me like a transition from the top of the table to mediocrity."