Kompany statement
I want to be known as a manager, not for my time at City . . . I’ve not even seen my statue there
VINCENT KOMPANY is so focused on the future he has not even bothered to visit the statue that honours him as a Manchester City legend.
“I’m not nostalgic at all,” said the man who lifted the Premier League trophy four times for City during a glittering playing career.
But now he is tasked with taking Burnley back to the top flight at Turf Moor.
Kompany is on a mission to reinvent himself.
It will be a tough task for a character 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 is clear he wants to be his own man after leaving Anderlecht to help the Clarets recover and rebuild following their 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,” insisted the Belgian.
“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.
“And 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.
“What I want is when fans have had a s*** 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 something I am very much looking forward to. Nothing else.”
Money will be tight, with most of Burnley’s parachute payments due from the Premier League likely to be swallowed up by loan repayments.
But Kompany said: “Things are simple and honest and what people tell returning as Burnley manager?
“No, no, no. Could you imagine doing that?
“One day I will go to see it. But, as a coach, I don’t have to I have to worry
about Millwall worry about and think about statues and Rotherham stuff right now.
“I have to worry about
Millwall and think about Rotherham.
“I have to think about Huddersfield away. That is
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 that it is possible again.”