Vincent Kompany was reflecting on a debut win in charge of Burnley fc. It came courtesy of a bold display of passing, with a playmaker at the heart of it. As he discussed the architect of victory at Huddersfield, he invoked a manager in Manchester. But not Pep Guardiola. Perhaps comparisons will be inevitable even without Kompany encouraging them. “At Man Utd, [Erik] Ten Hag took a few players from Ajax,” he said, explaining the recruitment of Josh Cullen.
Familiarity bred contentment. There may be a jarring juxtaposition of Burnley new and old with Ashley Barnes barging his way around in attack and Cullen stroking the ball around in midfield. But such has been the scale of the Kompany revolution at Turf Moor that he forgot how many signings he has made – “I think we are at eight,” he said, a day after Vitinho became the ninth – and such has been the speed that he has had to skimp on scouting at times. A third of his signings have come from the Belgian league, another third from Manchester City.
