It has already been a busy off-season for Bayer Leverkusen, who finished third in last season's Bundesliga. The Westphalia side have already lost some of their top assets, though they have made some shrewd signings to bolster the squad for next season.
Young attacking midfielder André Schürrle in the end opted to sign for Europa League champions Chelsea after much will-he-won't-he specualtion towards the latter part of the season. In the end, the 22 year old cost Prodigal Son José Mourinho and his blues €17.5m.
Schürrle played an important role in Leverkusen's third place finish - which means a return to Champions League football for Die Werkself, after a year in the Europa League - and was half of an impressive attacking duo alongside Stefan Kießling, who finished top scorer in Germany's top division with 25 goals.
Bayer Leverkusen have replaced André Schürrle with teenager Heung Min-Son after the South Korean impressed fans and rival clubs alike last season at Hamburg. Another winger joining the club is Aussie international Robbie Kruse. Kruse is on the back of a fantastic season, despite the fact that his Fortuna Dusseldorf side were relegated on the final day of the season.
The other big departure to Sami Hyypia's side was right-back Daniel Carvajal. The Spaniard - a product of Real Madrid's famous Castilla youth academy - has returned to Los Blancos after only a season in Leverkusen.
Hyypia drafted in Italian Giulio Donati to fill the void left by Daniel Carvajal after impressing scouts at this year's U-21's European Championships in Israel as he and his compatriots finished as runners up.
Many eyes will be on Bayer when the new term begins in August to see if they have what it takes to compete for the title, which would be the first in the club's history. Their rivals are most likely to be both Champions League finalists Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund - the former now of course led by Pep Guardiola.
Bayern, who have been tipped by many to dominate European football for the coming years have signed Mario Götze from Borussia Dortmund. The youngster becoming the most expensive German of all-time after FCB triggered his €37m release clause. The other addition to Bayern's squad is Thiago Alcantara, who signed from Guardiola's old club Barcelona.
However, Mario Gomez has made his way out of the Allianz Arena to go to Serie A side Fiorentina. The striker had expressed feelings of discontent after having to compete with Mario Mandzukic for a place in the starting eleven last season.
Borussia Dortmund themselves have signed Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar Donetsk to replace Götze as well as striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from French outfit St. Ettienne and Greek centre-half Sokratis Papastathopolous, who spent last season at Werder Bremen.
Bayer Leverkusen will probably be unable to improve on last season's third place finish as both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund once again look to have too much for the rest of the pack. However they may be title contenders in the coming years as boss Sami Hyypia conitinues to build a dynasty of young, attack minded players.