sport news Vincent Kompany won FIVE games this season so why DO Bayern want the Burnley ... trends now

Under Friday night lights in the height of summer two years ago, Vincent Kompany introduced the managerial version of himself to English football.

Ahead of kick-off on a balmy July evening, few outside the inner sanctum of the visitors’ dressing room at the John Smith’s Stadium knew what was coming when the Belgian, clad in a smart navy suit and bright white trainers, strolled confidently out of the tunnel.

Not Burnley’s supporters, who had travelled across the Pennines in fine number for their first Championship game of the season, not those watching in the press box and certainly not those lining up in the blue-and-white stripes of Huddersfield Town.

What followed was a 90-minute masterclass. It may have ended 1-0 but it could have been five. Burnley — formerly Sean Dyche’s pragmatic Burnley — played their hosts off the park with a dazzling brand of pressing, front-foot football that was easy on the eye and brutal on the opponent.

After what was a procession, giddy supporters gleefully jammed Radio 5 Live’s phone-in to hail the arrival of a new Burnley, the polar opposite from the old one.

Having landed the job in east Lancashire Kompany immediately set about his task. This was revolution, not evolution, and it was played out mostly behind closed doors.

Burnley appeared in only one pre-season friendly in front of the public that summer. It was, as everything is with Bayern Munich’s manager-in-waiting, planned to the most intricate detail and is part of the attraction that has left him on the cusp of an extraordinary move to Germany’s superpower.

Some have said the Manchester City legend must have the best agent in football to even be in the conversation for a move to the Allianz Arena, let alone in the private jet bound for it.

They will point to what followed after that night in West Yorkshire. For having led Burnley back to the Premier League with a mammoth 101 points, Kompany then spent what is thought to have been more than £100million assembling a side that could only muster 24 points and five wins. They finished the season eight points from safety but had it not been for the deduction handed to Nottingham Forest, they would have been 12 adrift.

Bayern will look beyond that. They are aware of the countless hours the 38-year-old spent in the office of Pep Guardiola, their former manager, when he knew he was in his final season at City, peppering him with questions, a sponge for the information that the Catalan happily shared.

Guardiola remains close to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the former CEO who now sits on an advisory board, and former president Uli Hoeness — and seals of approval don’t carry much more weight than that from east Manchester.

Bayern will also reflect on what they saw from Kompany’s Anderlecht sides, when personnel regularly made the trip from Bavaria to Belgium to monitor their striker Joshua Zirkzee, who had joined Kompany’s first club in management on loan for a year. And they will have listened when Rene Maric, their head of coaching and philosophy who studied for his badges with Kompany, sang his praises.

But what of Kompany’s time in Burnley? How has a promotion followed by a relegation proven to be the stepping stone to a plum job at one of Europe’s elite? Is this the greatest blag of all time? Well, it was a reign of two halves.

In his first summer at Burnley, Kompany performed what some may view as a miracle. While managing to cut the Turf Moor wage bill in half he rebuilt the side he had inherited from Dyche into a dynamic, creative unit from across the Continent.

Few managers in the modern game play such a key role in recruitment, but these were Kompany’s players. At the club’s training ground the meeting room became the centre of activity. Hours were spent with analysts going through videos, showing them the skills they needed to identify and how to identify them. Those who sat through them were left with a clear

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