The Kompany we keep

Liz Byrnes on promotion races, shredded nerves and conversations with Vincent Kompany.

Words: Liz Byrnes

When Sheffield United put five past Burnley in November, it was a very unhappy Vincent Kompany who attended the post-match press conference.

He bristled and kept circling back to one thing – the return match at Turf Moor. It was one of the first things he spoke about, the former Manchester City man in apparent shock at what the Blades had inflicted on his team.

If he could have put on a pair of boots and taken his place in a defence that was being ruthlessly dismantled at set pieces, then the Belgian surely would have.

He said:

I’m looking forward to the next time we play each other and at Turf Moor.

That’s with respect because they were good but you do not roll over, no way.

It was only their second defeat of the season, and as we know, no team has subsequently beaten the promoted Clarets in the league.

Before the match at Turf Moor on Monday, I was quietly confident. Fair to say that positivity evaporated after 17 minutes.

There were just three points between the teams going into the World Cup break, and it appeared they’d continue to go toe-to-toe once play resumed like two heavyweights slugging it out. Now there’s a 14-point gap and talk is of whether the Clarets can beat Reading’s Championship record of 106 set in the 2005-6 season when United finished second.

The Blades had a wobble in that season too with one win in eight during February and March which coincided with Leeds and Watford going on the charge.

United’s (then) bad run culminated with defeat at Norwich, after which Nigel Worthington described Neil Warnock as “disrespectful” for flicking two fingers at him after the final whistle. United went on to win four and draw three of their last seven games to go up nine points ahead of third-placed Watford, who were promoted via the play-offs.

The Royals lost only two games that season too, against Plymouth and Luton. Kompany’s team have been similarly relentless, winning new friends and fans as well as games. Plaudits all the way. Lots of gushing. (And no, I’m not at all saying that through gritted teeth – not one little bit.)

I think it’s healthy to have the likes of Burnley in the Premier League: a club with close links to the town and community and little distance between team and fans compared to the mega-clubs like City. Similar to United in that sense, really.

The Clarets reeled off nine straight wins on the resumption following the World Cup and have failed to take maximum points on only four occasions since then.

As we know, the Blades’ ‘wobble’ threatened to completely derail the season, going from what appeared an odds-on promotion to doom, gloom and the play-offs – 10^th time lucky, anyone?

After the Lancashire club moved three points closer to promotion with victory at Hull last month, I asked Kompany how they’d remained unbeaten while United stuttered.

I can see how you would be dropping points at some point. It’s really difficult to maintain consistency across such a season – especially this one. It’s throwing curveballs at you all the time.

It’s the timing of games, it’s the location of games – everything crammed into one. 

But I can see how you can lose points in such a period.

I can’t really say for Sheffield but I know that for us it has been really important to set our targets a little bit elsewhere rather than the competition between us and Sheffield or the competition between us and Boro.