It all began, in a roundabout sort of way, with a groin injury. A few minutes into the second leg of Manchester City’s Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, Vincent Kompany lunged awkwardly, felt a pop near the top of his right leg and knew what it meant. He would miss the rest of the season. He would miss Belgium’s Euro 2016 campaign. Most worryingly of all, he would be injured for the arrival of a man he was keen to impress: City’s new manager Pep Guardiola.
In a sense, the qualities that helped Kompany navigate a two- decade career were the same qualities that made him such a peerless defender: a razor-sharp instinct for danger, the ability to intuit threats and convert them into opportunities.
John Stones was about to sign for almost £50m and Kompany knew that for all he had achieved, City’s bright new dawn held no guarantees for an injury-prone 30-year-old centre-half about to play under one of the world’s most demanding coaches. So as he impatiently chugged through his gym and rehab sessions, he made a promise to himself. He was going to go back to school.
Over those summer and autumn weeks, Kompany started scouting his new manager as thoroughly as he would any opponent. He made sure he was in every team meeting, even the ones he was not required to attend. He was on the sidelines at every training session, making a mental note of the drills. He spoke extensively to Guardiola’s staff to find out what made him tick. By the time he was finally ready to play again, he would later joke, he understood Guardiola’s methods better than Guardiola himself.
In the short term, it worked. Deeply impressed by Kompany’s commitment, Guardiola would repay it with his own, giving his captain the time and confidence to win back his place. But for Kompany his time spent studying Guardiola had awakened something within him. It was at that point, he would later admit, that he realised he was going to become a coach.
So began a journey that on Saturday evening will take Kompany back to the place where it all started: the Etihad Stadium, City, Guardiola, the same familiar blue shirts, the same familiar swirl of noise, the same mesmerising passing football that he has strived to recreate at Burnley. Kompany is far too driven and single-minded a coach to succumb to nostalgia. What this FA Cup quarter-final instead represents is a test: of where he is as a coach, of how well his own nascent methods and processes will fare under the highest pressure, under the harshest scrutiny of all.
Ultimately, it was more than geography that lured Kompany back to north-west England for the challenge of hauling a debt-laden Burnley back into the Premier League. Perhaps he saw a little of himself in this quiet, tight-knit, understated and overachieving club with its culture of hard work and sincerity, its loyal and uncompromising fanbase. Kompany the player loved nothing more than an honest scrap. Kompany the manager turned out to be wired much the same way.
And again where others saw a threat, Kompany saw an opportunity. At the start of the season, the bookmakers gave Burnley roughly the same odds of being relegated as winning the division (about 9-1). Thirty players left over the summer in a desperate attempt to cut costs, among them Nick Pope, Dwight McNeil, Ben Mee and James Tarkowski. But the exodus gave Kompany the opportunity to build a fresh, young squad that could play a fresher, younger style of football.
There was a little money available and Kompany spent it wisely, bringing in players such as Josh Cullen from his old club Anderlecht and Anass Zaroury from Charleroi. And after a slow start, Burnley have set fire to the Championship. Promotion is a virtual formality; two defeats in 37 games have put them in a position to threaten Reading’s record of 106 points. The average age of their starting lineup is more than three years younger than it was last season. Average possession has gone up from 40% to 64%.
Equally, the transformation from the Sean Dyche era should not be overstated. In many ways, Kompany has simply built and refurbished an existing culture: one of unstinting aggression, coordinated pressing, working the ball out wide and delivering pinpoint crosses. Burnley are fourth in the Championship for set-piece goals. Meanwhile, Kompany has largely kept faith in a trusted first XI. Stalwarts of the Premier League era such as Matt Lowton and Ashley Barnes have been firmly but unfussily moved aside. “He was honest with me at the start,” admitted Lowton, who after getting the hint left for Huddersfield Town in January. “He pulled me in and said my game time is going to be limited. That is fair play.”
All of which has seen Kompany, 37 in April, hailed as one of Europe’s brightest young managers, perhaps even a candidate to take over from Guardiola himself. Indeed Guardiola went out of his way on Friday to make the connection, saying he was “more than convinced” that Kompany would become City manager one day. Yet for a young improving manager early adulation can be a fragile thing. The examples of Steven Gerrard and Patrick Vieira illustrate the difficulty of sustaining that initial fire-streak of success, of converting a promising introduction into a sustainable career.
But what we can already observe is that Kompany looks, sounds and feels the part. Along with Xavi at Barcelona and Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, Kompany is part of the first tranche of Guardiola players to make the transition to management. And perhaps there is a kind of burden there too, a tyranny of expectations that brings its own unique danger. Then again, given what we know about Kompany and danger, he may just be fine.
