Vincent Kompany was one of the revelations of the benches in Europe. The Belgian managed to promote Burnley to the Premier in record time and achieving the spectacular figure of 101 points. Now the fashion technician has spoken with Gary Neville on his podcast The Overlap about his great year with Burnley and what the future holds. He also has great words for Pep Guardiola, with whom he met at Manchester City.
From Cruyff’s philosophy…: “I played my entire youth academy at Anderlecht. We play according to the Cruyjff philosophy. When we were children, we watched Johan Cruyff videotapes on the bus on the way to matches. That left a great impression on me. It was all about playing nice football, but as soon as I got to the Anderlecht first team, that disappeared. Before I dared to haggle and pass. I haven’t been able to do that for thirteen years. In England they always taught me to hit people (laughs). I thought it was fantastic. I was in the gym a lot so I could fight with the Stoke defenders.”
…To Guardiola’s: “Then, at the age of 30, I met Pep Guardiola and everything changed. Suddenly the circle was complete. I lost five kilos and was able to play football like before. With Burnley we play a lot with possession of the ball, but that’s not an end in itself for me. I want to have the ball a lot when I feel like we can do something with it. I know the Premier League will humiliate us in that sense, but we did that in the Championship and that’s something I believe in.”
His work methodology: “They say that Kompany usually works until 10:00 p.m. Sleeping only four or five hours is no exception. I found a nice mechanism to pause when I really have to. I can work very hard five days in a row without a break. And if you do, no one can blame you for taking an afternoon off.”
Ready for the Premier?: “Before this I was at Anderlecht. That it had ended up in a situation similar to that of Manchester United: a great club, but for various reasons results had not been achieved for years. Combine last season’s Chelsea with United and you have what happened at Anderlecht. Why did I choose Burnley last year? First and foremost: in life you are not too big for anything. My father thought it was strange at the time I signed for Manchester City when he was at Hamburg. That was a big club in the Bundesliga at the time and a regular Champions League participant, but it was there for me. I don’t make instinctive decisions and I analyze everything very extensively before making a decision. If I can’t convince myself that a certain decision is the right one, then I don’t make it. So I can’t regret it later.”
