Vincent Kompany turned a burnt out Burnley into warriors to get them back to the Premier League

When Vincent Kompany first walked into Burnley’s Barnfield training base in July, he found a group broken and burnt out from a bruising relegation. In a 12-minute passionate address, he told every player they were winners.

As the Clarets confirmed an instant Premier League return with seven games to spare, it is easy to look back in hindsight at that moment. But from that day on, Burnley have looked just as Kompany described them: winners. Ruthless, breathtaking, warrior-like winners.

The Belgian’s speech that day was peppered with wit learned over 15 years as an adopted Mancunian, and a fair dose of precision, empathy and realism. He’s since admitted that even hearing the word ‘losing’ makes his blood boil.

He talked about his best strengths as a player, a glittering career which saw him lift four Premier League titles as captain for Manchester City. ‘I was never as good as the players I played with,’ he said. ‘My biggest strength was what I did behind the scenes, making every guy better.’

By not shying away from his continuous knee injuries in his later career, he pointed to the fact that every squad member and coach has equal importance to the team’s goals, whether on the medical table or first name on the team-sheet.

Vincent Kompany has turned Burnley into warriors since joining the club in July of last year

The Clarets returned to the Premier League with seven games remaining under the Belgian

‘The key thing is to lift everyone around you, all the time,’ he said. ‘Fifty per cent of the time I wasn’t playing but I was in the gym when there was a team-mate feeling down or overthinking things like the manager didn’t like him. I reassured him.’

Burnley players were transfixed on Kompany and hung on his every word. The assertiveness runs in a family rich in authority, with father Pierre the first black mayor in Belgium and late mother, Jocelyne, a political activist.

Insiders at City say that team-mates used to joke that Kompany was set for a career in governance rather than coaching after his playing days. ‘Who will give us lectures now?’ joked David Silva, his successor as captain in 2019. ‘They could use Vinnie at the UN!’

Kompany is giving lectures in another sense. His Burnley side have delivered a masterclass in football this season, losing just twice all campaign and going thus far unbeaten at Turf Moor.

He might look friendly on the sidelines with his charming grin and baseball cap but don’t be fooled. Kompany has a mean streak and has let rip at his squad at times, it is understood.

In a clip that often does the rounds on social media, the Belgian hammered his Anderlecht team for a lack of application and attitude. ‘There’s one f***ing side of me that you haven’t seen, boys,’ he roared, before launching into a tirade at his underperforming squad.

Kompany certainly has traits of an old-school man manager in him but it would be amiss to limit the praise to that. He is a fine tactician with a rich understanding of positional play.

Kompany hailed former Man City boss Pep Guardiola as his biggest influence in management

In a recent interview with Alastair Campbell, Burnley fan and Tony Blair’s former right-hand man, Kompany hailed Guardiola as his biggest influence.

‘Pep found a language for football that I understood,’ he said. ‘From there I started writing my own story but he made football closer to being objective than ever.’

The former defender will talk about a chess-like approach of spaces and places on the pitch, creating angles and attacking the correct areas. It is framed around the central goal of, in his own words, ‘having a chance to hurt opponents and defuse their strengths’.

He has overhauled Burnley’s approach from pragmatism to possessional dominance, seeing their average possession rise from 39 per cent last season to 64 per cent this term.

Nathan Tella (R) is Burnley’s top goalscorer this term with 17, amid a flurry of different scorers

Defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis, on loan from Manchester City, has also aided the Clarets

They have conceded just 30 goals, had 19 different goal scorers – Nathan Tella top scorer with 17 – and are set to become the fourth Championship side in history to breach the 100 point mark. If they hadn’t been slow starters, they would have smashed Reading’s record 106.

One player who epitomises Kompany’s ideas is young defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis, on loan from Manchester City. It is understood he will return to Burnley next season though, with respect to the Clarets, his ceiling is much higher. The Stockport lad is fit again after an injury lay-off and is the focal point of starting every attack, similar to John Stones for City.

‘My passion is scoring goals – I know I’m a defender, or used to be – but I want my teams to look at every opportunity to score goals,’ said Kompany in that August meeting. ‘There’s enough football in this team to do it.’

As Burnley confirmed their promotion at the first time of asking on Friday night, it was interesting to think back to Kompany’s first address to his troops. Winners, he called them. How right he was.