Even for a club that has set winning trophies as the very minimum expectation for decade, Bayern's side around the turn of the millennium was especially strong.
Owen Hargreaves walked into a side featuring the likes of Oliver Kahn - who made the list of our greatest goalkeepers ever - and Stefan Effenberg when he made his debut for the club in August 2000.
Bayern had just been finalists and semi-finalists in back-to-back Champions League seasons, and would go on to win it at the end of that season, as well as wrapping up a third successive Bundesliga title - only the third time Bayern had completed that hat-trick at that point in their history.
Owen Hargreaves explains what it takes to live up to Bayern Munich's elite mentality
That made the Bayern training ground a potentially intimidating place to be for a youngster like former England international Hargreaves, who had joined Bayern's academy at the age of 16.
Speaking to FourFourTwo about his early experiences working with the first team, Hargreaves said: "Forget the games – every day in training was intense!
"The younger lads would be tested all the time: big tackles flying in, trash talk, bollockings...you had to earn it with those guys.
"[Oliver] Kahn was an animal. He would have steam coming out of his ears if you ever f**ked up."
However, if you did manage to get the respect of those totemic figures, you would get accepted into the fold.
Hargreaves explained: "Stefan [Effenberg] was brilliant: a proper leader and inspirational character. He took care of me in games.
"If you could show that you deserved to be there and you weren’t intimidated by it, they’d pick you back up and accept you into the group.
"It was an intense atmosphere as we were expected to win every single game domestically and in Europe.
"Even when we did win, big characters – Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeness, who ran the club – would still come in and say it wasn’t good enough. Only the best was good enough.
"It was elite and I became one of those guys, in terms of mentality. I demanded more from the younger players and new signings, like, ‘This is the level; if you want my spot, then you’d better be prepared to go to war for it’."
Owen Hargreaves was speaking to FourFourTwo on behalf of TNT Sports.
