Bayer Leverkusen's Bundesliga Invincibles started training for their final two tasks of the season on Monday while sporting director Simon Rolfes is busy planning the future.
Leverkusen are the first team to go through an entire Bundesliga season without a defeat for their maiden league title, and they are also yet to lose in the Europa League and the German Cup, where they face Atalanta on Wednesday and Kaiserslautern on Saturday in the finals.
The Atalanta match in Dublin will be Leverkusen's third European final, having won the Europa League under its previous name UEFA Cup in 1988 against Espanyol and lost the 2002 Champions League final against Real Madrid.
Leverkusen's unbeaten run stands at 51 matches, which is already a European record, and no European team has ever gone through a season unbeaten in all competitions since continental matches were introduced in the mid-1950s.
Atalanta will be no pushover
Rolfes named Atalanta "a top team" in an interview with dpa and added that "we will need a top performance. They are very physical, with a lot of power and score many goals.
"It's a European final. And you can tell from all the attention over the last few days," Rolfes said, adding that the semi-final loss last year against Roma was "a huge motivation for this year.
"The fact that we have now made it to the final after the semi-final last year is fantastic. The [Bundesliga] championship was the club's dream and that's why it's something very special. But a European final is also a really big deal."
New 'freshness' in summer to bolster squad
While repeating the extraordinary unbeaten run next term appears unlikely, Rolfes is already working on how to improve Xabi Alonso's side for matches in a new-look Champions League with more matches, and for domestic action.
"We will try to bring freshness into the squad and create new dynamics. So that the competition starts up again after the summer and there are also new opportunities for players to develop," Rolfes said.
"But the majority of the structure will remain, so there will certainly be no rebuilding on the scale of last year."
Granit Xhaka, Victor Boniface, Alejandro Grimaldo und Jonas Hofmann arrived last summer and became key players in the remarkable run.
Rolfes said that the club's perception has changed through the winning run and the presence of Alonso, who arrived in October 2022 when Leverkusen were second last.
"The perception of Bayer Leverkusen in Europe has changed overall as a result of this season. But I wouldn't quantify the boost that much, because we signed players last summer who we wouldn't have had the opportunity to sign four years ago," he said.
"The development over the past years is positive. Players see that we are an attractive club to be successful, but also to develop and improve themselves."
'No problem' that success also creates interest in Bayer players
At the same time, the big success has generated interest from big clubs in Leverkusen players, with especially Jonathan Tah and Jeremie Frimpong subject of transfer speculation.
Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro has said that they could sell a player for a big fee to finance new ones.
Rolfes struck a somewhat similar line, saying: "We realise that we're not at the end of the food chain in the football ecosystem. When someone leaves, we always see it as an opportunity.
"Interest, no matter in whom, is always a sign of success. That's why it's not a problem."