Otto Messerli, then a junior in the first team squad who in later years would be captain of the Young Boys, described the situation: "There were many good ideas, but FC Basel and FC Zürich remained unattainable for us." This was also no different for the Merkle successors Skiba, Schneiter und Eich, Brülls, Peters and Linder: The Young Boys reached big games on occasion (such as the Cup final against Basel that brought 52,000 spectators to the Wankdorf), but over the long term their performance was unspectacular. Still, some YB players rose to national recognition. The Dutchman Bert Theunissen replaced Meier and Wechselberger in 1964 as "gunner" and he became Swiss scoring champion before he left YB. A good replacement for him was found, however: the Bernese bought Dieter Brenninger from Bayern Munich. Another new transfer, Walter "Wale" Mueller, played between 1967 and 1972 for YB, and was a dreaded striker for opposing defenders.