It’s the height of summer in Germany. The beer is cold, the sun is high, and the Bundesliga is bleeding. Bleeding stars. Bleeding coaches. Bleeding competitive edge.
While the rest of the league wipes the sweat from its brow and counts its losses, Bayern Munich—forever the Bundesliga’s glutton—sits fat and grinning atop the wreckage.
If the 2025/26 campaign were a card game, Bayern have just been dealt a royal flush, while their rivals are folding, heads down and pockets empty.
This isn’t just a summer of movement—it’s a full-scale evacuation. And Bayern? They’re the last ones standing at the party, laughing at the chaos, lifting the league’s silver salad bowl before a ball has even been kicked.
A Mass Departure of Talent
Let’s start with the gut punches. Bayer Leverkusen, the title-winning darlings of the 2023/24 season and Bayern’s keenest challengers last term, have seen their castle crumble brick by brick.
Florian Wirtz, the prodigious playmaker with defence-splitting magic in his boots, has gone to Liverpool. Jeremie Frimpong, whose runs down the right gave defenders vertigo, has left for Merseyside too.
Hugo Ekitike and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens? Two more sparks of raw electricity, have also vanished from the German scene, with England’s Premier League again the destination.
And then there’s the master tactician, Xabi Alonso. The man who tamed the Bundesliga with a brand of football smoother than single malt scotch and twice as potent, has departed.
His exit leaves Leverkusen feeling rudderless. They’ve lost not only the pieces but the hand that moved them.
It gets worse. Over in Leipzig, Benjamin Šeško and Xavi Simons—two players who could’ve made RB Leipzig title contenders in any other universe—are also heading for the exit. Simons was a revelation, Šeško a menace. Leipzig’s aggressive, vertical football will look toothless without them.
The bloodletting isn’t surgical; it’s savage. And it isn’t isolated. This is systemic.
Chasing Ghosts in Dortmund
And what of Borussia Dortmund? A club that usually trades in potential like Wall Street traders deal in chaos. They finished 25 points behind Bayern Munich last season and beyond Gittens, have had no assets worth stripping this summer.
Dortmund fans are some of the most passionate on Earth. They pack the Yellow Wall with love, but they deserve more than a team running in circles around its own philosophy. Every time they get close, Bayern reminds them who owns the keys to the kingdom.
Dortmund finished the previous campaign strongly under February hire Nico Kovac, however, the club, as popular as they are, haven’t lifted the Bundesliga title since 2012 and finished 4th and 5th in the last two seasons. They can’t be expected to challenge.
Eintracht Frankfurt: The Eagles Fly Too Close to the Sun
Eintracht Frankfurt were one of last season’s feel-good stories and enjoyed their highest finish (3rd) since their surge to second spot all the way back in 2012.
However, two of the chief architects of their success, Omar Marmoush and Hugo Etikite, were sold in January to Man City and July to Liverpool, respectively, filling the Frankfurt coffers, but leaving the team’s frontline vacant.
Marmoush and Ekitike registered 47 goals contribution between them last season in a side that scored 68 Bundesliga goals in total. They won’t be easily replaced.
Bayern Munich: Alone at the Summit
Which brings us back to the beast at the top. Bayern Munich. The Bavarian war machine. A club so relentless in its pursuit of domestic dominance, it now seems to operate on a different plane of existence.
Depth, flexibility, and ruthlessness are the currency here. They’ve been relatively quiet in the summer market – not that they needed strengthening. Bayern cantered to top spot last season with 82 points and 99 goals, 13 and 27 better than their nearest rivals, Leverkusen.
Die Roten then took key centre-half Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen, stripping their antagonists of their cornerstone defender.
Leroy Sane has gone to Turkey, but explosive Colombian Luis Diaz is in line to replace him. They haven’t just remained stable amid the chaos—they’ve sharpened the knife.
Is There Any Hope for the Rest?
So, what now for the rest of the league? Can anyone mount a challenge? The short answer: no. The long answer, unfortunately for fans of even playing fields, is similar.
The Bundesliga has always been Bayern’s sandbox, but this year, the sandbox is empty. The kids have all gone home. Leverkusen were the anomaly. A rare meteor that blazed, briefly, through Bayern’s monopoly. But like all meteors, they burned out quickly.
RB Leipzig will reload, as they always do, but developing future stars takes time. And Bayern’s timeline is immediate. Dortmund still dream big but deliver small. They are the eternal bridesmaids, watching Bayern walk down the aisle every May.
So here we are, staring down the barrel of one of the most one-sided Bundesliga seasons in modern memory. Bayern Munich have always had the budget, the infrastructure, the legacy.
Now, they have the perfect storm: rivals depleted, talent vacuumed out, and a squad humming with menace.
Bayern aren’t just favourites. They’re inevitable. Like sunrise. Like taxes. Like that feeling of dread when you realise your club just sold its best player to the Premier League.
The Bundesliga, once a battleground, is starting to feel more like a museum exhibit. “Here lies competition,” the plaque might read, “killed softly by ambition, money, and Bayern’s relentless appetite.”
The fans are still hopeful. But deep down, everyone knows the truth. The 2025/26 Bundesliga title race may have already ended before it began.
