Vincent Kompany is so focused on the future that he hasn’t even been to visit the statue commissioned to honour him as a Manchester City legend.
“I'm not nostalgic at all,” said the former man who lifted the Premier League trophy four times for City during a glittering playing career but has now been tasked with taking Burnley back to the top-flight.
Kompany is on a mission to reinvent himself. It will be a tough task for the man who is so synonymous with the Blues that he has been cast in 1,700 kilograms of galvanised steel to stand 10ft tall outside the Etihad in perpetuity. He won the title under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini and twice with Pep Guardiola - but it’s clear he wants to be his own man after leaving Anderlecht to help the Clarets recover and rebuild after the trauma of relegation.
“I could sit here all day telling you what I picked up from my managers but at the end of the day I’m going to be my own man,” said the Belgian, who appears to have maintained the physique that made him one of the Premier League’s most imposing defenders.
“That’s why I am going to do everything I can to draw the emphasis away from Pep. He’s such a fantastic coach - but I am still only 36 and I’ve already got three years of valuable experience as a manager. That is why I am coming into this project at the right time. I am extremely respectful and some things are in your blood and will never go away. But I don’t need anyone to tell me how good I was as a player because I really don’t care.
“I live very much for the here and now. I am a coach now. That is the only thing I care about. I will let you in on something: I am still to go and see the statue. I am so grateful, yet I’m also a person who is almost shy with these moments. I find it hard to find words to explain it. It is a recognition that is so big. It’s too big. This is the other side of me. This is the Vinny who is coming to Burnley to see our guys really have a fight and give something to the fans when they come to the game.
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“What I want is, when fans have had a s**t week at work, they come to the game and think ‘that’s cheered me up’. It is as simple as that. Would the ideal scenario be to see the statue by returning as Burnley manager? No, no, no. Could you imagine doing that? I will go to see it one day. But as a coach, I don't have to worry about statues and stuff right now. I have to worry about Millwall. I have to think about Rotherham. I have to think about Huddersfield away. That is something I am very much looking forward to. Nothing else.”
Kompany is bringing in former City team-mate Craig Bellamy as his right-hand man. But he will lean heavily on Mike Jackson, the academy boss who was unable to keep the Clarets in the top division when he took over as caretaker-manager following Sean Dyche’s sacking.
Burnley’s finances following ALK Capital’s leveraged takeover of the club 18 months ago have been a major concern, with most of the parachute payments due from the Premier League likely to be swallowed up by loan payments. But Kompany, who has a Masters Degree in Business Administration, has seen the books and was encouraged by the openness of chairman Alan Pace.
He said: “They have been very transparent and I had a lot of time to make this choice. I can live with my decision because I feel it’s been very well-informed. Opportunities like these don’t come along very often. The club is in a rebuild. There isn't any politics. Things are simple and honest and what people tell you is what they mean and you roll with it.
"I hope the fans are the same - and I am sure they will be. If we’ve been bad, we must own up to it. We’re not going to call ourselves anything other than what we are. But what Burnley have done better than anyone else is be together and grow over time. I think it is possible again.”
