Bayern Munich: Trouble brewing in paradise?

Pep Guardiola and Arjen Robben

For all his achievements, Guardiola will have to work to earn the trust of his charges – for they are still covered in the gold-dust from last season. Ribery has been blowing his own trumpet in his desire for a Ballon d’Or, while Robben has, quite simply, been stubborn and obstinate.

He has publicly downplayed Guardiola’s impact on the team. His words, thinly veiled in contempt even, caution against changing too much in the Bayern machine.

What has seen Robben’s phoenix-like rise, from faltering in marquee clashes, to scoring the winner in the Champions League final, has been his ego and his pride.

And while John McEnroe was right when he said that “you need ego to get to the top, and ego to stay there”, Robben’s personal sense of importance could well threaten Bayern’s quest to remain at the top of the footballing pyramid.

His childlike response to the now infamous penalty incident only points to his own misguided sense of importance, and how Guardiola will prevail no matter what the winger tries to pull.

When I said earlier that Bayern are nothing like Barcelona, it was intended in a good way, because that is as it should be. Barcelona’s stubbornness to have a reliable Plan B came to haunt them last year – but Bayern will not fall into the same trap.

Change is the philosophy that Bayern have adopted – a diversely motivated group of individuals united in a common quest for greatness. They are equally comfortable bossing possession, as they are at hitting teams on the counter-attack with devastating precision.

And in Guardiola, they have a true footballing visionary who saw the gaping holes in his own tiki-taka philosophy long before the world took notice. He may hate the term “tiki-taka”, but Guardiola’s emphasis on possession has gone down well with Bayern’s ever-evolving machinery.

Robben has maybe taken too many hits out there on the field, because his impudence suggests a remarkable level of stupidity. The winger is 29, and for all his qualities, is by no means undroppable.

Change and evolution are the order of the day at Europe’s preeminent football club, and Robben could well find himself cast into the wilderness if he fails to recognize Guardiola’s authority.

And Jose Mourinho, for all his attempts to force some “negative energy” into Guardiola’s camp, will once again be resigned to taking out his frustrations on Juan Mata, who will then take refuge in Iker Casillas’s weekly prayer meetings.