During a Burnley training session last season, Vincent Kompany was not happy and did not hide it. Baring the brunt of his frustrations was experienced midfielder Johann Berg Gudmundsson.
If you haven’t seen the clip, it is from the second season of Burnley’s behind-the-scenes documentary, Mission to Burnley. It shows Kompany shouting at Gudmundsson, claiming the player was moaning and had poor body language. Some of Burnley’s other senior players stepped in to try and cool the situation.
The clip generated debate on social media, mostly painting Kompany in a negative light for airing his frustrations in the way he did.
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The clip also offered insight into how Kompany as a coach operates and raised questions about whether the same approach would work or be used at German giants Bayern Munich, where he was appointed head coach this summer — a significant step up on the coaching ladder.
Kompany has never claimed to be Mr Nice Guy. A furious post-match team talk from his time at Anderlecht was well received by Burnley supporters in the lead-up to him becoming their manager in 2022. When he feels he needs to make a point, he will.
Passion and desire are key drivers that made Kompany the player he was and make him the coach he is. The first of those characteristics is on display in the clip with Gudmundsson. Whether you believe it crosses the line or not, it represents Kompany’s mentality. Having played at the highest level, his standards are to be the best and he expects those he is working with to replicate that.
Heated arguments on the training pitch are not uncommon at football clubs and tensions rise, especially when results are not going well, which was the case for Burnley last season on their way to relegation.
Still, Kompany gives short shrift to players’ complaints he deems unnecessary or to those who moan or sulk. He places a huge emphasis on training, wanting players to prove they deserve to play. He is also intense, and that intensity wore some of his players down as the season went on during the second campaign at Burnley.
Morale was low following a terrible start to the campaign. Some senior players had been irked by the treatment of team-mates who had been crucial to the promotion campaign but had been pushed to the fringes, replaced by new signings. There was a perception among some that Kompany was displaying tactical naivety, inexperience and a stubbornness to adapt his principles.
The Belgian had the keys to the club. He was involved in every aspect on and off the field. He had a power and an aura that commanded respect. When he walked into a room people listened. When everything was going well, it ran smoothly. When things turned sour last season, his influence rubbed some people the wrong way and not everybody was sad to see him depart.
Gudmundsson left Burnley at the end of last season, his departure announced before Kompany left to join Bayern. The midfielder has since re-signed for Burnley under new manager Scott Parker.
Kompany and Gudmundsson in 2018 (AFP/Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
But a snapshot clip taken from a season’s worth of training sessions should not define Kompany as a specific type of coach. During the full documentary, you see different sides of Kompany’s personality, particularly around his treatment of Lyle Foster and his mental health struggles.
There are eloquent pre and post-match speeches aimed at motivating and lifting his players. While there were frustrations from some players, there was never a revolt against him, and they retained an overarching belief they could stay up.
Kompany takes a keen interest in getting to know every player and how they operate to learn how to get the best out of them. He will be honest with players about their situation in the squad — but he is not always the most personable manager. He will generally defend his players in public but privately he was not known for explaining selection decisions or taking time to tell individual players why they are not in the team.
The squad he is inheriting at Bayern Munich is very different from the one he left at Burnley. They are some of the best players in the world with greater accomplishments and bigger egos. Kompany’s task during pre-season has been to command the same respect from a notoriously powerful dressing room.
Those who have seen the clip wonder whether Kompany would have taken the same approach had it been Harry Kane or Leroy Sane. His mentality seems to indicate there would be no difference.
Last season, he spoke regularly about controlling his emotions. He lives on the line between being passionate and driven but not reckless: “People who behave in that way become winners,” he says before the dispute in the documentary.
Sometimes, those emotions boil over. Some will view the clip as disrespectful in how he spoke to Gudmundsson. Others may interpret it as showing how much it means to him. As he says himself during the altercation, “It’s f****** life or death.”
That arguably best defined what Kompany is as a coach. The job becomes his life and his mentality is to win. That will not change, regardless of who he works with.
(Top photo: Kompany with Gudmundsson after Burnley beat Sheffield United last season; by Stu Forster via Getty Images)
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