Kompany Reveals All On Man City Career & Burnley Premier League Return

0:00You only have three or four hours, five hours sleep a night. Is that right? I can go really hard and if I feel that I need a little bit of time, I'll just put everything down. I called those a mini-retirement last week on an interview and I got absolutely hammered for it. Yeah, I've seen that. What are you thinking? It's a mini-retirement, isn't it? Honestly, if you switch off for an afternoon, it's a mini-retirement. I was getting top-heavy, going in the gym, 97k going out wrestling with stoke defenders on set... I loved it because I learned in England that I just got to go and smash people. You give Kevin De Bruyne a plan and he's the best player in the world But you give Eden Hazard chaos, nobody's better than him You're taking bullets for everyone and fire on everything And then you just become a pain in the ass That battle you had with Liverpool for three or four years Yeah, it was unbelievable Do you think that was the team that Pep found most difficult to beat as well?

0:50Yeah, for sure You've ignored every bit of advice you've been given as a manager

1:01I'm in Burnley to see their manager Vincent Kompany a legend on the pitch from Manchester City and at international level with Belgium he's transitioned brilliantly from elite football player into manager and has returned Burnley to the Premier League at the first time of asking

1:21Vincent, welcome to The Overlap We're at Burnley's training ground and we're in the middle of summer, but you've got them back quite early. Yeah, get as much time as we can with the players on the pitch. Yeah. Anyway, I want to take you back to the very beginning, Vincent. I was really fascinated to read about your mum and the fact that she was a union worker. You called her socialist, borderline communist. How was that in your upbringing and how does it inform who you are now and what you do now? No, she was a firecracker. She was opinionated. She was strong. She had a voice for women. Obviously, she was blonde with blue eyes.

2:03She had children who were black, so that was really difficult, especially in a lot of the areas where we went into. But the biggest thing that I had for my mom is she was working for the government agency for employment and she had all the statistics at hand, of course, that's what they had. And the first thing she said, she said, look, based on the color of your skin and the same qualifications, it would be twice as difficult for you to get the same job as anyone you're studying with at school now. And I was thinking, why? Even if I do the same and the same work, she said, yeah, this is statistics that's proven that it's twice as hard.

2:38She never said that this is a defeat. You know, it's going to make you stronger. It's going to make you better. And we kept that. I think you're meeting me now, but if you meet my sister and my brother, we're similar in that sense. Was she always unionised and felt that way, or was it because of the inequality that she'd experienced and what she'd seen? It's a good question. She came from a little village in the middle of nowhere in Belgium. She was a school in the 60s, and I think she was borderline hippie in those days. But she was a clever woman, she was a smart woman, and she was working for herself.

3:08and we had both parents working as well. So we had a very well-balanced family home despite that we lived in an area where it wasn't easy. And your father, an amazing story, he was the first ever black mayor in Belgium. Tell us about that. Are you going to go into politics, by the way? No, I'm not going into politics. Not at all. I like to say too much what I think and I don't think you can do that in politics. No, look, my dad was... First of all, he came over as a political refugee. He was part of the protests against the regime of Mobutu. So, you know, where you throw a rock and you get shot at type of thing.

3:46And he was put in a camp, like a punishment camp for students that were against the regime. And he found a way to flee to Belgium. Was a cab driver, did his studies. And then came my mother, came the children. And, you know, that's a little bit of his story. then he was a teacher for a long time and worked for DHL as well. And then at the very end, he was an inventor as well. Okay, of what? Well, wind turbines rotate in a different way and create oxygen for lakes and stuff when they're stuck in the summer and it starts polluting. And then from there, he went into politics and became the first black mayor in Belgium.

4:27Is that where you think? I mean, obviously, you're renowned and regarded by all as being one of the great leaders. and even in sort of the last five, six years, people say quite often they don't make players like that anymore, they don't make leaders like that. You're often referenced as the last leader of traditional type. Does that come from your upbringing and your sort of parents and the speaking out and the leading people? There's obviously more leaders and new leaders coming, of course, always. But you feel like the last of that generation where you were sort of holding a team together, you felt like that at City sometimes.

4:59I don't know, I think as well, even in my leadership, I got better with age, with time. Would I say I was a great captain when I was a captain at the beginning? No. Would I say I was a better captain at the end? Yes, but it's more the process of... Because power is something toxic, right? You can have that feeling, especially in the down period when I was becoming a big player and very successful. In the down periods, I've realized because I've had the injuries after that, the bad seasons after that, and I realized that, you know, power is very fragile and it turns and when it turns it's more violent than anything else.

5:35So I kind of learned to become much, much more humble as well, even being a captain. Just try and put a team before yourself. I think that's already a fantastic captain. It's so difficult to do in football. And I started being more calm as well, letting others come with the ideas rather than imposing everything on. And then people start asking you and then that's the best dynamic. people going to you and say what do you want us to do what do you think we should do and and time helped a lot with this but you know you could say you're born a leader which is you're born with a personality to say what you think but that doesn't make you a good leader from the start did that come from your parents though in that sort of political background that they have or do you think it's just something that came at city just naturally happened no i think it's something in the in the family you know we were always told to you know to say what we thought and and and to speak up for for our minds and and and to say it in a respectful manner and and and you know i think it just happens naturally where you want to help and you want to help and you want to help and in the end you become a bigger and bigger voice um but the leadership thing is something that's very difficult i've i've read books about it i've sat in workshops where people want to discuss leadership and and and and the only thing i can say is like you can't you can't force it you can't fake it it just it just you need to grow into it sometimes have you got an example at city when you were captain in those maybe early days where you felt a little bit out of your comfort zone as a captain or as a leader or a moment where you feel you came of age a moment where you thought right this i feel like i belong as the captain now because when you first put the armband on you're looking for some credibility from your teammates you wonder sometimes whether your teammates want you to be captain there might there'll be others in the dressing room that want to be captain as well maybe yeah i think the biggest thing is when you become a captain it's the perception but in reality it means nothing you know you have to be a leader without having the armband that's that's leadership but in the beginning you start thinking it means more than than than that you know you you start thinking yourself as a symbol and all this kind of stuff and it's definitely not the right way to go about but I would think the captain might, you've got to sort everything out.

7:44So a player comes to me, it could be anyone, and has a little bit of a moan of the fact that, you know, why are we training at 10 o 'clock instead of half past 10? And I'm going to the manager and say, you know, the players think we've got to train at 10 o 'clock. And you're taking bullets for everyone and fire on everything and then you just become a pain in the ass. And with time you realise that sometimes just waiting will give you the right answer. And then when you've decided that you are going to speak up about something, you'll have more value. It means something. Yeah, it means something.

8:13And the thing is, always speak up if you thought about it and you think it's the right thing to do. But you've got to give yourself the time to think about it. Yeah. Yeah. Who was the most challenging manager that you worked under as a captain when you were at City? Obviously, you worked under three. The challenge, and it was a very good man, was with Pellegrini, but he had this idea that the captain needs to always run at the front and he needs to always be available, always play. so obviously I had a lot of injury problems and I needed to be managed at times sometimes I had to get back but in the gym I was training like a lunatic but no one would see that and that really for my body it was just not something I was able to do and I felt like well just because in his head this is how you have to be a captain that's already set me back a little bit so you didn't adapt to your physical circumstances at that time no but I get it so where he's from a bit South American and stuff you're there all the time you go and whether you've got a broken leg and you keep going and this was my nature as well but it was the reason why I wasn't playing as much it's because I did all that when I was younger I had all the scars and all the things of battle and it just catches up with you at times and I was just you know I was not able to be that guy at least but it doesn't mean that I didn't do my role of course for the team you came as a midfielder to City I'm smiling as well because I remember it I thought I was a midfielder as well so I remember it but I forgot it and then obviously I was reading up in the last few days before I came to interview you and Mark Hughes brought you as a midfield player and you played 40 odd games that first season as a midfield player I don't even remember you as a midfield player now do you think about being a midfield player?

9:56no but do you know do you know what my thing was is like I always had a big frustration it was as a defender you're always the guy at the very end who's picking the ball next to the keeper out of your net and you're bringing it back. That's the only time people see you. Welcome to the club. Exactly. And I had so much more, especially when I was younger, I was actually a ball-playing defender. First of the generation type of thing, or from that era at least. But then in midfield, it's never your fault. It's true, it's never your fault in midfield. As a young player, I was like, yeah. But then I started loving defending with Mancini, to be honest.

10:33yeah and so was he the one that converted you and said that you're a centre back yeah because he wanted me as a centre back we played Anderlecht against Inter Milan in the championship when I was a kid ok and I played against Adriano and Oberfemi Martins at that time and they were kind of the two strikers in Europe that were unbelievable yeah and I played really well at 17 years old and he remembered that yeah and he tried to buy me at the time and then so he landed at Man City it was like you're a centre back but then I really loved defending under Mancini yeah because it was structure so I was never on my own.

11:05I wasn't defending two strikers, one going to me and then passing the ball. I had the athleticism, especially when I was younger and I loved defending 1v1 at just 2v1s too much. But with Mancini you were never underloaded. You always had guys. Because I was a good talker, I was good at defending crosses, I was aggressive on any frontal balls but then as well I was fast enough to... But having people around me made me so much stronger and then I felt like for the first time I could actually compete against the very best in the world. Because as a defender, if you're on your own, you feel that a lot of players are much better than you are.

11:44But when you have a good team around you, all of a sudden you feel like you can play against the best. And my strength was communicating, pulling people together and big challenges. And that came out even more, you know? Did you have doubts about him in that first year? Never. Never had doubts. You thought he would always come? Because he was right. I wanted him to be more aggressive, so I started booting people in training. Did he like that or not? No, he didn't.

12:24Just looking at your career at City under those four managers, which one do you think you sort of learnt the most from in terms of obviously Mark you've brought it to the club then you have Mancini, Pellegrini then obviously you have Pep you'll obviously have learnt things from them all but where was the sort of period where you felt that did the most sort of good for my career? No Pep for sure Pep for sure even at the end? Yeah because I was given almost like a curriculum you know I was given a What do you mean a curriculum? Just a way to explain football, to talk about the game, to explain positions, to explain tempo of the ball, timing of support, timing of runs and understanding...

13:06In every position or just your position? In every position and understanding what is the effect of every decision you make on the pitch, every position you take on the pitch. And like I said, it doesn't mean that I'm able to do what he does, it just means that I was able to just bring, to progress, to become a better player. My biggest regret is that, you talk about regrets, my biggest regret is that I didn't have Pep when I was 18, 19, 20 years old. Because the player that I was in that time, I had decent potential. You think he would have moved you into midfield and back into defence, like you're doing with John Stones now maybe, back then?

13:47Yeah, definitely, right back, left back, I could have done at that time all of it. but obviously as you get older, you get a bit bigger, you get a bit stiffer. Injuries take a toll and then a lot of my games I was actually, I think as well, I could have been the best player with him when I was younger, but as well I could have had a fantastic career with a manager like, for example, Mourinho, because I was good in structured defences, I was good at doing my bit when the ball's around me and as well making sure people are never getting out of position. So I was in the two extremes really. take me back to that curriculum statement in terms of what does a Pep Guardiola training session look like for a centre-back what sort of did he do what's that curriculum mean he just continues to keep repeating you know you will have heard all these things when you were a kid yourself as well when you have the ball make the pitch big and when you don't have the ball you make it and then the addition to that is why and how you know and so how is for example if your goalkeeper gets on the ball and you say now you have the ball again you make it big you can either walk into position jog into position or sprint into position but you sprint into position so you want to make it big as quick as you can yeah and if a player is under pressure you give support to your teammate as soon as you can because then you can find a free man and he has to then progress the ball and and these type of things where it's almost like becoming like a chess match was that every day that you would do those things yeah yeah but i don't think i'm saying anything new is probably more confirmation and and how it works but i think it's also how my mind processes things yeah to me that's very very valuable the same way i felt that if i had good information i was able to on the pitch really really translate it into something for a lot of people around me yeah um that that was that was music to my ears because you know obviously i understood the plan really quickly and I didn't even need to be 100 % fit to play well.

15:47Yeah. Because I could do what I needed to do because I had the picture in my head before. And I say this a lot, but, you know, they asked me the question at the time when Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard were at their primes. And they said, who's the better player? Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne. And I was like, they're two very different players. so you give Kevin De Bruyne a plan which is getting from Pep and he can have the picture in his mind before he gets the ball and he's the best player in the world nobody can do what he does because he sees the picture he doesn't actually have to open his eyes it's in his head the patterns of what's going to happen and then anything simple because he does it so well he's better than anybody else but you give Eden Hazard chaos no organisation, no structure and nobody's better than him other than maybe your messies and stuff like this.

16:41But that's the level, right? Because they weave their way, they find, they boom, they ride the challenge, they turn one way, pressure there, turn the other way. Next thing you know, he comes out of something with the ball and then his next pass frees up someone because he's already attracted that many bodies around him. And that distinction of the game is maybe the best way to explain why. For me, that was such an important change. When you play out from the back and you split your centre-backs to those sore positions that you do with Pep. The solutions that you have in front of you, are they all different patterns or different movements?

17:15Or is there an element of freedom of, say, where Rodri would go or where, when you played, obviously it would be Yaya or De Jong? Would you be given movements? No, the positions are extremely structured. Structured, fixed. Of course, you've got some great players. I remember with David Silva, we would come in sometimes on a Monday and it's like, oh, see what David did there? We've got to do that next time. Because he's that high a level that he has his own interpretation and he will actually give you a solution that you didn't think of before. So you do go with your players. But in terms of all these things with build-up and stuff, I think a lot has been talked about it because of the dramatic, if you can see the goal.

17:58But as long as the net result is that you score more, it's always worth doing. and also the biggest thing is like when you look around, it's a mistake to think that build-up is just positions. A lot of people think it's positions, so you go, you open the pitch and you're in position, centre-backs are there, and then it looks silly when you lose the ball, but it's about tempo of the ball, it's about spaces that you're trying to create ultimately further up the pitch to go and score, to create clear chances where there's always a higher value. and if you lose the ball here, within a second and a half, you can recover six bodies behind the ball.

18:36Any good defensive team with six bodies, it's still difficult to go and score. Then before, three seconds later, you've got the 11 back. Whereas once you get through over there, it's impossible to add people to come back. You're through on goal and you're going to score. The net result is more important and the principles more than the positions. Did you find it challenging all the things that you were being asked to do when Pep was there at the beginning or did you feel inspired by it? Inspired but I was lucky well lucky I had a bad luck I pulled my quad in the semi-final of the Champions League in Madrid after 10 minutes and that was the last period of Pellegrini and that was the moment Pep came in so the first four months with Pep I was on the sidelines so I made sure that every single rehab session I had was never in conflict with the time.

19:32So they said to me, oh yeah, when the team goes out, you go in the gym, no chance. So you watch training? Yeah. I said, when the team's out, I'm out. And I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll do it after, I'll do it in the evening, I'll do it in the night, no matter what, but I'm out. And then when I saw the sessions from the team, I would position myself in those sessions on my own and I would see the physio and I was like, right, this cone goes there, that cone goes there. And I would set my own sessions up on my own for like three or four months. I would be in every meeting, every game. Like I was taking everything in.

20:03And so the moment where I came in... You were used to it. Yeah, I couldn't wait to execute it. But I remember I scared him a bit because we didn't have the best start necessarily. We had a very good start, then a bit of a dip. You know how he goes, you start the season, summer months are beautiful. And then comes the winter and we had a bit of a dip of form and I came in at that moment in time and I felt like I wanted it to be more aggressive. So I started booting people in training. Just to prove, I felt like, look, I can play, I can do all that. Did he like that or not? No, he didn't. So that cost me a few months on the touchline for longer.

20:46So he was subbing that first year? I think it was just at the beginning. I think if you look at his teams now and what he's been doing since, there's no way that you can out-muscle City. no chance this team's powerful now they're powerful they've got everything but I think it was his first six months in the Premier League and to be fair he did the hardest part out of anyone's job it was to actually go into a country where nobody believed it could be done the way he wanted to do it and to then look back now at what he's done and achieved it's unbelievable but at that moment in time I just came in and I was like right I've studied everything he wants us to do let's just spicy up did you have doubts about him in that first year never when obviously you didn't win the title in that first year never never had doubts you thought it would always come because he was right he was right so I had three or four months where I was just observing watching so by the time I go in I couldn't wait to just be a part of it as well and actually try and show that I could do it but I never had doubts because I the moments when it worked you could see that it was different the other teams weren't ready for it and it was just a matter of time and I knew as well that he would probably get another transfer window another summer to strengthen he was clinical in that first year or so in the transfer window wasn't he which put the pressure even higher for me to come back stronger because I was like it's happening again I've had three or four cycles at Man City where you get a£60m defender brought onto your position here we go again and you thought you'd done well.

22:26Did you think he was actually challenging you in that period? But you know, I want to add one thing. The reason why I believed in what he said as well is what is unknown is I did all my academy years at Anderlecht from the age of six to the age of 20 when I left the club and Anderlecht took all of their ideas from the Cruyff philosophy. So we played three Diamond III from the youth. We watched tape recorders from Cruyff going to games. this was like us on the bus 8, 9, 10 years old we were watching tape recorders from Cruyff going to a game and I said that to Cruyff's to Johan Cruyff's wife when I met her to understand how far the principles, the philosophy went how far he went so when I was 17 actually because as soon as I went into first team football all of it disappeared and I never saw it back until Pep came in when I was 30 so it just went full circle but what he was teaching and that's why it was funny because I learned in England that I just got to go and smash people.

23:26We're good at that. And I loved it. But I loved it. I loved it. I could have played in a championship and had fun. I loved it. I just, you go smash people and this and I was getting top heavy, going in the gym, 97k going out wrestling with stoke defenders. I loved it. But then he came in, I dropped four or five kick to get my way down, get back leaner and it was everything I knew from before but obviously as he saw me the first time he saw the images of me smashing people so I don't think he liked it I don't know I don't think he knew that I could do it so you question whether you had the technical ability he said to me once as well he said Vinnie I came in and I thought and then I can see the tempo of your passes and you break the lines and and you know you can whip the ball and I was like yeah well what do you think I'd be doing when I was a kid I just they They told me to give it up and when I got in the first team they said defenders should just defend.

24:22Defenders should never take risks, clear the ball. So I never had to do it for 13 years and I thought that this is how you are a good defender. Game is finished, it's just a high five to each other and they walk off. I hated that. You only have three or four hours, five hours sleep a night. Is that right?

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25:09going back to that battle you had with Jürgen Klopp Liverpool for three or four years it was unbelievable I mean it was the standards one year you were going like this and you were both winning towards the end do you think that was the team that you found most difficult to play I think it was the team that Pep found most difficult to beat as well for sure the biggest thing they had the closest that I've seen in terms of what they were was their relentlessness. And that made them nearly just as great as the City team in that time. But just the difference is we probably just edged it most of the time.

25:40When did you think, because you were getting nearer to Manchester United, you were still just not quite there. When was the moment that you thought, we've got them? We went to Old Trafford. We didn't play well. I think we lost 1-0 or 2-0. But it was a dull game. Yeah. Like, my first experience of going to Old Trafford, you got, I think it was Tevez, Ronaldo, Giggs, Wayne Rooney, and Evra, and Evra's just going... And, you know, and it's literally, game is finished, it's just a high-five to each other, and they walk off. It was an easy game. Yeah. I hated that, because then my head was going...

26:19But two years later, to see them just get, like, a dull game, and they're not really getting anything, and we were not really scared and we were just like I knew one more transfer window and we got them. You got them? Yeah. I knew it was coming. Yeah. Did you ever think Manchester United would get so bad or that you just thought City I mean City on and off the pitch they're a machine aren't they? Yeah but things happen at the same everything happened in the right moment because Sir Alex Ferguson retired yeah and for us it was a big one to win it when Sir Alex was still a manager but to be quite frank it was absolutely normal that United would you can't have a manager for that long, that successful, and there's no transition period.

27:01So United used to be the machine, and we just got the years at the right time to actually become that level with now a manager who's obviously one of the best of his generation. In terms of off the pitch at City, what was your view of how they do things? How have you brought that in here to Burnley? How have you brought the quality of the recruitment through the club, the academy, everything that's happened in the last seven or eight years? I tried to separate things. So you stayed to the football side? No, this is Burnley and this was Man City. I tried to separate things completely. I'll talk to you about my experiences as a player because I've been a player for 11 years, but the thing that I experienced when I was at Man City is that it was a very calm club.

27:45Despite all the craziness around it, I knew that I wasn't going to get politically manoeuvred out of something. If someone was better than me, he was going to play instead of me. So it was not a friendship thing, but it was not... People wanted you to do well as well. And it was a calm club where you just had to be the best. If you're not the best, someone else replaces you. And that lived there a lot, to the extent of what they are today. And when I'm here, I draw on my experiences, but I'm who I need to be for what I think this place needs. Players that I played with have struggled to separate their expectation as a player with their expectation, obviously, as a manager.

28:25And obviously you're at Burnley now. You've played in a world-class team at City under Pep Guardiola. You've done great here at Burnley, but they're a different level of player than the one. How have you coped with the transition in terms of from a player that was there to a club now that's doing really well? How's that been? Some struggle, don't they? Jack Rielish was a championship player not long ago. It's the journey you're on. And I like the journey. Nobody can tell a player he's not good enough if he's got the talent and the desire. So there are players with us now who will go to the top level one day.

29:00And I like the journey and I like working with them and making them better. And then the other side of it is I never seen myself as a top player. Believe it or not, I never did. I probably would have... I saw myself as a top player when I was 17 to 20. Mobile, fast, dribbling for the... You'd be surprised. Honestly... I need to get some old videos out. No, you would. You would honestly step up. I remember I was going with wingers and saying, what trick are we doing before the game? You can't believe it. I can't. Who is this player? Yeah, yeah. And I'd have bets that I was going to be the one doing the trick.

29:36So you'd see me in the corner there, in the other half, by the way, doing tricks with my centre-back captain shouting at me, what are you doing? Completely ridiculous. But I was a pragmatic, I wanted to win, so I changed my game completely. Well, it sounds like it. Yeah, completely. But what I had is when I snapped my Achilles tendon, I lost my speed. So you had to adapt and change then? Yeah, yeah. And I played with pain for like over a year. And I remember going home and I say, I'm not going to be... So I had in my head, the reason why I studied and I did everything afterwards as well is because I felt at 24 I'm going to be done.

30:13I couldn't run anymore. And then I had a manager who said, brilliant, great game. Why does he say great game? He said, you won every duel and I was heading balls and I was smashing people. A player that I would have been disgusted about when I was younger. And he gave me a lot of praise for it. And the team won and the team did well. And all of a sudden I fell in point and said, you know what? If this is who I am now, I'll embrace it. So just all of this to say, I was never seen myself as a great player since that moment because I felt like, you know, I'm just, I'm a team player now. and as a team player you have a different mentality I think my thing is like I know what hard work can give you I know hard work because anything I've done I don't feel it's been just a miracle it's been after that period of down period it's just been a lot of hard work and that's the recipe for my management as well I want to talk to you about management obviously when we go inside now but a lot of people were shocked when you actually took the job at Burnley you have Vincent Company this legend of a Premier League player, surely he wants a job in the Premier League.

31:21Why Burnley? First of all, you're never too big for anything in life. And then I will always have the best information at my disposal to make a decision for myself. So perception doesn't really matter. Tell you what, when I signed for Man City, my dad was like, what are you doing? Because Hamburg was like a Champions League club at the time. So what are you doing? You've got 60 ,000 people there every game. It was an unbelievable stadium, it was a big city, a big club. And you went to this small club in Manchester. Yeah, and I'd have fallen out with the chairman at Hamburg. I said, no, it's done, I'm going principal.

31:58And off I go to Man City. And I felt the Premier League was better for me. Do you make instinctive decisions or do you think you would analyse things before? No, I analyse a lot. So you analysed Burnley before you came here? Yeah, yeah. I analyse a lot, lot, lot. And when I can't convince myself that it's not a good decision, then I make the decision and I have no regrets I saw Craig Bellamy before very briefly and he said that you only have 3 or 4 hours 5 hours sleep a night and you'll be here till 9, 10 o 'clock tonight is that right? I work hard but I don't know I know managers are obsessed but I've got a very good mechanism to pause if I need to what's that mechanism?

32:38I can go 3 or 4 or 5 days but if you go hard then you have no regrets No one can judge you for having an afternoon off, right? Yeah. So I can go really hard, and if I feel that I need a little bit of time, I'll just put everything down, and I'll have no bad feelings about just spending time doing whatever I want to do. I called those in many retirement last week on an interview, and I got absolutely hammered for it. Yeah, I've seen that. Have you seen that? What are you thinking? It's a mini retirement, isn't it? It's a mini retirement. Honestly, if you switch off for an afternoon, it's a mini retirement.

33:09When you've won stuff, especially the first time you won stuff, you never know who's coming back how. So you've ignored every bit of advice you've been given as a manager?

33:36Vincent, what sort of manager would you describe yourself as? hard working keep it simple I don't want to start style and this and that because then it's like getting debates about religion hard working you obviously believe in a philosophy of possession football and keeping the ball yeah but I don't have possession because my thing is like let's go and have possession I have possession because I think we can do something when we have the ball but we were the highest pressing team in the league we conceded the least amount of shots we conceded the least amount of goals conceded the least amount of corners all these things and then we had a lot of possession and then we had the most amount of goals but that was our season but it starts from an idea to try and just be dangerous score goals from every phase and I measure my words because I know the Premier League will just humble you but with Burnley this is what we did in our division last year and it's something I believe in as well.

34:42Do you gain some encouragement from the three teams that came up last year to the Premier League all staying in the Premier League? Do you look at that and the patterns of how they played? I haven't looked into it one bit. I know how they play. I know how, you know, not only have I played in the Premier League but I've also watched a lot of Premier League games especially when we knew we were getting promoted. We're coming up now with a team that needs to maintain what made us good and that's my only focus. I know what the threats are in the Premier League, I know about the athleticism of players, I know about the speed in transitions, I know about the pressing of the teams.

35:19I understand that I've played in that league as well, but my only concern is how to find, again in a smart way, tools for us to have a bit of fun in that league as well. You had an unbelievable season last season, what are you most proud of? the group dynamics. I think we got smashed, absolutely smashed in every preseason game we played. But the way I kind of wanted to take them on that journey is a journey of progression. This is where we are today. And if I tell you today that everybody can get better if you work hard, would you agree with my statement or not? And everybody says they agree. So, OK, that consistency, now I'm going to push you on doing that because we might lose a lot of games now.

35:59But if we progress, we'll win a lot of games at the end. and all I do is hold them to those standards. And you've had a bad game, get on with it. Because in three days' time, we'll get another chance. Are you hard with them? I try to be honest with them. I always say as well that for me, the meeting room, it's a privilege when your name gets mentioned in a meeting room, in a debrief. Because in a group of 25, there's 15 other hardfield players who haven't played. So it's a privilege. Even if it's a negative message or a critical message. It's a privilege. and what needs to be said in the meeting for me it's everything because if it gets said there it's not just you learning but it's everybody around you who prevents making the mistake the next time and as well I'm grateful for whatever's happened because we get to make another step so so for me that's a really important and everybody believes in in that approach players before they sign when they come to us they know that I'm going to always be in their corner they can make mistakes, they can miss a goal, they can miss a pass, but every single time we'll say, OK, this is where you have to be to score more goals.

37:07This is how you have to approach the situation to have more chances. Obviously you've won, so that helps instilling confidence and belief, but how do you instill belief and also, you just mentioned there, accountability players accepting mistakes, owning up to it, talking about it. How do you instill that? The perception is I won because I've been in England now, but I was in Belgium before obviously managing Anderlecht which is a club similar probably to what United was going through big big club just not achieving and for many many reasons like put Chelsea and Man United combined and that's what was happening there and you land in the middle of all this and you have to kind of make sense to it for the group to keep going and I've got to be honest even in those moments I've never had the feeling that you don't get what you need from the group if you give them a way to progress.

37:57And once you get over that, and you will get over that hurdle, once you get over it, if you're consistent, they'll never not believe in you anymore. Have you had to be hard on a player in the last few years in management and say, no, they're not for me and move them out? Is there a moment where you thought, I don't want you to name a player? It's part of managing. It's not something hard, it's not something easy, it's just part of the job. You're going to get asked a lot, what's the ambition for Burn the next season? you are when you get to this pre-season what's the answer going to be to that question that you're going to get asked consistently I think realistically we're not going to get 100 points again next year realistically I hope you do because it'll be some season I've become a Burnley fan for the season so realistically that means if you agree with the statement then that means that we will have to review our ambitions a little bit as to what they were in the championship but I hate hate hate putting a ceiling on something I'll proudly say if we're not relegated like this was a great season proudly say but at the start of the season you won't get me saying that this is the goal I just can't physically express it I just can't It's not in you is it?

39:12You're used to winning aren't you? Yeah and I don't mind not winning if I'm feeling that I'm getting better because it's just a matter of time then you know you got people who are relentless just tip away in it and you just keep coming and eventually how many people have you seen off like this in your career you know well I've been the same at times but you know people people have highs and they get really happy and they drop the standards yeah and you tip away yeah and people get lows and they get really sad and they drop the standards and you carry on and eventually you catch people up as long as I'm feeling I'm doing that, I don't mind where I end up because I know that the next year will be better.

39:56That's what excites me. The next question you're going to get asked most is how much money will you spend and how many players do you feel you need to bring in? Obviously you want to be loyal and have consistency but you obviously need to as well make sure the team improves. How are you going to manage that balance over the season? Because you mentioned at City when Kaldun came in and Mansoor, you just wanted to stay on the train and on the bus but now Burnley gone into the Premier League. Some of those players will be thinking the same. No, it's my culture. I said it to the players on day one in a championship.

40:25I said it to the players when I was in Anderlecht. You are always competing with every player in the world that's affordable to Burnley Football Club. So if our budget is a given number, 10 million for a player, every player that's worth 10 million in the world, you have to be better than that player and the best that's affordable to us. and of course you take into account character, team cohesion, services to the club, definitely I really, really respect that but I don't want anybody to get comfortable and you know when you've won stuff, you know that especially the first time you won stuff, you never know who's coming back how, the first time you've won something and I want to have an open mind for that so I'm also willing to just see who I'm getting back, see how many are ready to make that step into the Premier League.

41:19We're not going to go and get someone out there in the market just because he's a little bit better now. If we have a player that we think can still progress, then we'll always go for the potential of that player. But if we have a player that doesn't want to progress, then it's not a hard or a difficult decision. It's just something we kind of agreed upon before they came to the club, so it's fair. what's the best piece of advice you've been given as a manager god I've been given so much so much advice it goes in both ways in here and out there you can't have small centre backs in the championship that was Carragher about Lissandro Martinez I did in the championship didn't listen to that one striker can't drop between the lines didn't listen to that one fullbacks can't go and play in midfield so you've ignored every bit of advice you've been giving as a manager I'm very selective I think I listen to any advice from anyone I really do but you've just got to have more thinking about it than I have but I listen to everything ok I'll give you one and I tested it very early doors burned my fingers and do what you believe in.

42:45Do not even deviate one bit to something you don't believe in. Just play a sense of it. And you go home, and if you win, you say, how clever was I? It's when you lose. It's a bad week. And they do smell that. Yeah, it's a long shower and a bad week. Yeah, because you, oof. Vincent, that's absolutely incredible, and you're going to be the first manager ever promoted from the Championship that's going to get 100 points in the Premier League. That's a statement.