At the start of last season, Bayern's general manager Uli Hoeness was confident he had a team which would challenge for the Champions League and set the pace in Germany's Bundesliga.

German captain Michael Ballack, Bayern's midfield general, had left to join English giants Chelsea with Owen Hargreaves expected to step into his shoes alongside Dutch hard man midfielder Mark Van Bommel.

But a year on, Bayern had endured their worst season for 11 years, finished fourth in the Bundesliga, missed out on a place in next year's Champions League and Hargreaves was sold to Manchester United.

"It's obvious that this team will be completely rebuilt," admitted a glum Hoeness just last month.

So the biggest spending spree in Bayern's history was launched and coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has been handed a squad of glittering stars as the Bayern board opened their cheque book, spending a reported 69 million euros (93 million dollars).

German striker Miroslav Klose, the top scorer at last year's World Cup, was tempted from Werder Bremen for a reported 15 million euros -- the fee for one of Europe's top marksman was relatively low because he would have been able to join on a free transfer at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Klose enjoyed an impressive start to his Bayern career finding the net in a 2-1 friendly win over Sao Paulo in Hong Kong on Sunday.

"Most people know about him, he has a lot of possibilities and a lot of skill. He's also an integral part of the German national squad," enthused Hitzfeld.

"He's very quick, he's very mobile, so I'm pretty sure you can expect a lot from him next season."

Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni, bought from Fiorentina, will partner Klose up front in the coming campaign.

"If we stay healthy and fit there won't be many who can contain us," the German said.

One of the biggest surprises has been the capture of French midfield maestro Franck Ribery from Marseille. Ribery had looked set for a move to the English Premiership when Bayern won the day with an offer of 25 million euros.

The Frenchman suddenly signed for Bayern on June 7, the same day as Toni's arrival was heralded and less than 24 hours after the 24-year-old had almost single-handedly terrorised Georgia at the Stade de France in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

German defender Marcell Jansen joined from relegated Borussia Moenchengladbach to strengthen last season's leaky rearguard and Brazilian midfielder Ze Roberto is back after a year at Santos.

Also among the new arrivals is Alemannia Aachen's young German striker Jan Schlaudraff, Schalke 04's midfielder Hamit Altintop and Argentinian midfielder Jose Ernesto Sosa.

That left no room for Dutch striker Roy Makaay, the club's top scorer with 16 goals in 33 games last season.

Makaay managed to bag an average of a goal every two games with the modest possession supplied from midfield, while Klose struggled for form at Bremen towards the end of last season, and is the second-best Bayern goal scorer of all time.

But he was sent back home, to Feyenoord.

Bayern showed how much they needed a new approach when they were found wanting in their defeat by eventual Bundesliga champions VFB Stuttgart last April with four games remaining.

Bayern were chasing a top-three finish to qualify for the Champions League, but two goals in two minutes from Stuttgart's Brazilian striker Cacau left the 20-times German champions down and out of the title race.

With no one in midfield to take the game by the scruff of the neck, Bayern never looked like reducing the deficit, leaving their skipper Oliver Kahn raging.

"The players could have been hungrier," Kahn fumed to German magazine Sport-Bild.

"We have a bad situation which we must be careful about -- it can start with one season and last for longer, becomes harder to deal with.

"We need to bounce back immediately by triumphing next season."