Alex - City Matters
Well-Known Member
It's more to do with the fact that FC Bayern II is a mixture of actual youth players and experienced pros. They don't actually have that many youth prospects, the majority are either out on loan or in that side. For example they have a striker (Karl Heinz Lappe) who played in the Second division last year and now plays for the Bayern Amateure side as they call them - He's around 30. Schweinsteiger's brother used too, or still does, play for them. They are almost a separate entity.That hasn't stopped the Portuguese or the Spanish teams doing well in the UYL. Seems like a poor excuse, Bayern probably just don't have the depth of youth talent that other teams do.
Thus, when they come to play in the UYL they have a mixture of the youth players from the second team and are on the cusp of the first team, like Sinan Kurt and Gianluca Gaudino last season; then you have the very young players from the actual younger teams. So, as a result they have a collection of players rather than a team and are rubbish.
The same applies to Dortmund and Monchengladbach, and Schalke to some extent. Christopher Wetklo plays for their second team; although they do place some significance in having a largely young second side.
However, many German sides have been moving towards our system recently more out of necessity really. For example, Bochum had to fold their second side because of financial troubles and as such their young players are either loaned out or get a go in the first team; this seasons example for them is Onur Bulut. Whereas others such as the larger clubs have sent a lot of their players on loan for higher experience, as playing in the Regionalliga Bayern (4th tier) or whatever local league their second side plays in isn't as good as these players are capable of - thats what has happened with Hojbjerg at Bayern. But they've also been using complicated loan moves, Moritz Leitner went to VfB Stuttgart on loan for two seasons and an example at the team I'm a member of Thomas Pledl has gone on loan at second tier Sandhausen for a year and a half from the Bundesliga Ingolstadt. They even use deals involving sales, such as Kurt to Hertha the other week and Bittencourt to Hannover from Dortmund; quite similar to how Barcelona operate.
Sorry that seemed to wonder from FC Bayern II to how German teams develop talent, but I got going and couldn't stop! ;)