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Karl-Heinz Rumenigge: Bayern Munich are enjoying best-ever era of success

Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has told the club's annual general meeting that this is "possibly the best-ever era in FC Bayern's 115-year history."

But uncertainty continues to surround the future of coach Pep Guardiola, whose contract at the Allianz Arena expires at the end of the season.

The former Barcelona coach has been linked with a move to Manchester City, while one report in Spain claimed an approach from Barca's arch-rivals Real Madrid had been rejected.

But Guardiola's future received little discussion at the AGM, where officials focused on Bayern's ongoing success both on and off the pitch.

The club posted record after-tax profits of €23.8 million, and finance director Jan-Christian Dreesen said: "We're in an outstanding position."

Bayern's 270,329 members make them the world's biggest sports club, and Rummenigge, in quotes reported on Bayern's official website, said those members were enjoying a golden spell of success.

"For a few years now, we've experienced possibly the best-ever era in FC Bayern's 115-year history," he said.

"We're doing wonderfully well in all competitions. If you'd said to me a few years ago we'd be mentioned in the same breath as Barcelona and Real Madrid nowadays, I'd never have believed it.

"We've created something big at FC Bayern in the last few years."

Rummenigge said he believed the club could win the Champions League this season, but stressed that a fourth consecutive Bundesliga title remained the main ambition.

"It looks so easy, but it's incredibly difficult," he said, adding that the club would approach the challenge for trophies this season "in all modesty, with a degree of humility."

Honorary Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer, writing for German press agency DPA, said he hoped Guardiola would stay.

"It would be a real shame if he leaves Munich after three years. He knows the Bundesliga much better, speaks German more fluently and has the players on his side more now that at the start", Beckenbauer wrote.

On Friday, Guardiola cancelled his prematch news conference ahead of the weekend's game against Hertha Berlin amid reports linking him with City and Real.

Spanish paper Cadena COPE reported that he had agreed to leave Bayern in the summer and make the move to City, but Rummenigge told reporters earlier this week that "no one is irreplaceable."

The runaway Bundesliga leaders have said a decision on Guardiola's future will be taken during the winter break.

His news conference prior to the Hertha game was cancelled "for private reasons" according to an ARA report, which also said he had not been present for the final prematch training session.

"There is no person in this world who can't be replaced at some point," Rummenigge said. "That's the state of things. Players come, players go, and the same applies to coaches. They come and they go at some point."