Following Burnley’s official return to the Premier League thanks to the great season they have had under Vincent Kompany, it’s clear the Clarets made the right choice when appointing the manager.
The Belgian has masterminded the Turf Moor side to 26 wins in 40 Championship games, accumulating 90 points in 41 games, but everything could have been very different.
That’s because Samir Nasri, who played with him at Manchester City and worked under him at Anderlecht, was trying to get him to go to Lyon.
This was before he was appointed as the Burnley manager, and in an interview on Twitch with Zack Nani, relayed by Walfoot, he explained what happened.
First, though, he made it clear that what was going on at Burnley was great for Kompany, who has been widely lauded for his work.
He said: “I’m very happy about what’s happening to him at Burnley. I often have him on the phone, he’s done some very good work. I offered him to Lyon at the start of the season. I’d spoken to Bruno Cheyrou about him. At the time, there was a debate about whether Peter Bosh would be kept. They eventually decided to keep going with him, but I’d told them to take Kompany.
“I told them that if they were looking for a manager that liked working with young players, Kompany was free. I’d been with him, I’d seen him work with the youth go Anderlecht. I’d seen how much he’d made them grow. He’s patient and inspires himself a lot from Guardiola and his way of playing. If you want to find a relationship with your fans again, you need to offer them the beautiful game. I know Vincent loves that, that’s why I offered him to them.”
Nasri haș himself said he now wants to try his hand at being a manager, and perhaps he will be able to work with Kompany a bit more, this time at Burnley, to try and get some experience and shadow his former teammate?
