The signing of former Spanish international Xabi Alonso was hailed as a masterstroke by Bayern Munich; a genius display of bargain buying at its very finest. The Real Madrid man only cost in the region of ~ €5 million, and is the perfect replacement for Toni Kroos, who of course went in the opposite direction to his Spanish counterpart in joining Los Blancos from Bayern Munich. The problem is that Xabi Alonso is an ageing player with waning powers, while the German World Cup winner is only starting to reach his true potential.

The fact that Xabi Alonso had to shoulder a lot of defensive work in his Bundesliga debut against FC Schalke 04 is mind numbing, considering that he was considered by many Real Madrid fans as an "extreme liability defensively", which Pep Guardiola surely should have been aware of given his numerous battles in El Clasico as the manager of Barcelona. It is one thing to flexible and revolutionary in tactics, but it is incredibly easy to cross over to stubbornness and ignorance. The whole Toni Kroos saga is a perfect example of this, because it is clear as day that Bayern Munich still needed him. What other reason could there be for Die Roten to purchase the most similar player in world football to Toni Kroos, Xabi Alonso, just a month or so after selling the former?

This is why the whole drama reeks of personal vendetta or dislike, rather than footballing reasons or extortionate wage demands. What happened between player and manager, we will never know, but it is a telling indicator that Xabi Alonso is set to earn €7.5 million per year at Bayern Munich, just beneath the ~ €8 million region that Toni Kroos was rumored to be demanding, according to sources such as BILD and kicker. This also ties in with another issue; an increased influx of foreign players, particularly Spaniards, into Säbener Straße. This is by no means something foreign to club as financially well-off and historically successful as Bayern Munich, but the fact that German players such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller and Holger Badstuber will lose playing minutes goes against the ethos of the Uli Hoeneß era. Granted, the former is currently injured and the latter has just returned from a 20-month absence from football due to injury, but there were murmurings even before Bastian Schweinsteiger was injured that he might have to be content with a spot on the bench. The arrival of Xabi Alonso will only serve to add more questions than answers regarding the status of the talismanic German, so crucial to the World Cup victory.

The age old question under Pep Guardiola was not whether Thomas Müller would be effective, because we all know his genius, but whether the Spaniard would find him elegant enough to play in his almost obsessively aesthetically pleasing style of football. With a three-man defense which allows only two roaming attackers flanking striker Robert Lewandowski, we might see the Raumdeuter getting less and less time on the pitch. This might sound like someone trying to make Pep Guardiola out to be extremely vain and short-sighted, but one has to judge for oneself. The hunger for possession in his football has driven him to the aforementioned three-man defense, which has become almost extinct in modern football for a reason. As we saw in the DFB Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, the absence of specialist full-backs can leave the defense exposed, and it is in fact quick counter-attacks, their downfall last season, which will be the main threat once again.

The approach that other teams cannot hurt you when you have constant possession of the ball might not fail them in their pursuit of another Bundesliga or DFB Pokal crown, but it will undo them in Europe, as we saw last season. Teams like Real Madrid and Chelsea, to a lesser extent, have their main attacking threats out wide, and the question is whether a wing-back would be able to handle world-class wingers along with overlapping full-backs. Intriguingly, it was also an experiment with playing three at the back which lead indirectly to the end of his era of dominance at Barcelona, which leaves nagging suspicions that the Catalan has not learnt from past mistakes, and most crucially has not learnt at all from the mauling at the hands of Real Madrid in the now-infamous Champions League semi-final encounter in which Carlo Ancelotti comfortably out-coached his opponent with flexibility and, yes, compromise.

It is not secret that Bayern Munich craves more European success, and the fans were given an all too fleeting glimpse of what this current generation of players are capable of when the legendary Jupp Heynckes lead them to a treble which promised such a bright future. The old saying of never trying to fix something that is not broken has never been as relevant, and another domestic double might not be enough. Discontent is slowly but surely starting to simmer in the Südkurve, because even at this early stage of the season, there has been no indication that lessons have been learnt. However, football is a cruel sport, and it will find weaknesses and ruthlessly expose them, which might prompt even the most loyal fans of Pep Guardiola to take a serious look whether anything has in fact changed for the better. Time is still on his side, but there has to be some compromise in a rigid philosophy.

One thing is for certain; nothing except success will be tolerated at Bayern Munich, and one feels that with the squad they now have, the Champions League is a top priority. This will be an incredibly interesting season in Bavaria, no doubt at all about that.