As a player and a captain, particularly at Man City, Vincent Kompany had no equal.
He was literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above his contemporaries, and he’s taken that excellence into management, firstly at Anderlecht and now at Premier League outfit, Burnley.
Unfortunately for the Belgian, he’s enduring a tough time of it at the moment, with the Clarets second from bottom of the English top-flight having managed just two wins in their 15 games.
Whilst followers of the Premier League can see what he’s trying to achieve, it appears that he’s the right man at the wrong club.
Former professional turned journalist, Stan Collymore, has a word of friendly advice for him.
“When you go into the Premier League, using the Manchester City style of play… with the greatest of respect to him (Kompany) and the Burnley players, you’ve got to be a better team to do it,” he said in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
“During those first six weeks the die was cast. They were getting done by three, four, five because they were too open. The irony is that instead of just being the purist Pep disciple, he should have taken a look at Mikel Arteta.
“Last season Arsenal were taking on all comers, laughing, joking, being expansive, expressive, scoring lots of goals… but this season’s version is clean sheets first.
“If you looked at Arsenal statistics up until the Luton game, they had the most clean sheets, most wins on the road, fewest amount of goals conceded and that’s because Arteta knows goals win games but clean sheets win titles.
“Will he be a great manager in the future? Absolutely. He’s bright, he’s able and he’s willing to take on new ideas and philosophies. I certainly wouldn’t put him in the ‘great player, crap manager’ bracket because I think with his next opportunity, hopefully in the Premier League, he’ll realise that clean sheets are as important as playing open expansive attacking football.”
When you’ve played under and learned from the very best, the influence is bound to rub off on you, however, Kompany needs to understand that Pep Guardiola has the players to be able to play such a swashbuckling brand of football.
There doesn’t to be too much doubt that the Belgian will be as successful as a manager as he was as a player, and the time spent at Turf Moor will undoubtedly prove to be a learning curve for him.
As and when he decides to move on to pastures new, it will be interesting to see if he continues to play the same way, or sacrifices entertainment for results.