As he left the scene of Bayern Munich’s latest triumph, Vincent Kompany must have felt like the blood in his veins had been converted into red wine.
His team had dethroned football royalty. It was a statement victory, eliminating Real Madrid from the Champions League quarter-finals, and another impressive addition to Kompany’s growing portfolio.
Was it really only two years ago that Kompany watched his Burnley side, having freewheeled to promotion, meekly drop out of the Premier League? That a club of Bayern’s size would turn to a relegated manager was scorned in some places, attracting near-derision from former Burnley manager Sean Dyche.
Nobody is questioning it now. Bayern are 12 points clear in the Bundesliga, with a semi-final to come in the DFB-Pokal against Bayer Leverkusen. Nothing unusual there, you might think, given that Bayern have dominated football in Germany for several decades. Yet it is still extraordinary to see a team that has lost only once all season and, most astonishingly, accumulated 105 goals from 29 league fixtures.
Don’t forget that Bayern, on Thomas Tuchel’s watch, lost their grip on the Bundesliga and looked startlingly ordinary in the season before Kompany’s appointment. Normal service resumed last year when Kompany re-established them as champions. This season, it is not out of the question that he will emulate what Jupp Heynckes did in 2012-13, and Hansi Flick in 2019-20, by finishing the season with Bayern as treble-winners.
On that basis, we should also be ready for the upcoming debate about whether Kompany ought to be on Manchester City’s radar as the best, and most logical, appointment if this really is Pep Guardiola’s final season in the Premier League, as many people believe.
Vincent Kompany and Pep Guardiola as Manchester City captain and coach (Anthony Devlin/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Are Kompany’s Bayern a glimpse at football after Guardiola?” the BBC Sport website asked on Wednesday. And, yes, Kompany ticks all the boxes. It would be bizarre if he is not prominently in City’s thoughts, especially bearing in mind he already has a statue outside the Etihad Stadium because of his achievements as a player, captain, and serial champion.
Unfortunately for City, there are all sorts of other considerations to take into account here, and whatever his history with the club, it is difficult to believe it could really happen. Not yet, anyway.
Would Kompany feel any emotional pull to return to Manchester? One day, undoubtedly, but the more relevant question is this: why would he want to leave Bayern?
He is already managing one of Europe’s genuine superpowers. Bayern reckon they could have sold 90,000 tickets for the Madrid tie. They will be the strong favourites to win the Champions League if they can overcome Paris Saint-Germain to set up a final against Arsenal or Atletico Madrid on May 30. And this doesn’t have to be a one-off.
Everything about Bayern is geared to sustained success, re-establishing themselves as the best team in Europe and then, crucially, maintaining that position. That, for Kompany, should be the real test of greatness.
Yes, it’s true that Harry Kane will turn 33 this summer. Kane has scored 50 goals in 42 appearances this season and in his three years since leaving Tottenham Hotspur, 135 in 138 appearances. Yet he still looks good for a few more years yet. Michael Olise plays football as though he wouldn’t leave footprints in the snow. Luis Diaz is a throwback to Jurgen Klopp’s peak years of “heavy metal football” at Liverpool. It is a wonderful mix, arguably the most effective front three in football. And the rest of the team isn’t too bad, either.
Vincent Kompany’s statue outside City’s ground (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
For now, the links with City are hypothetical until Guardiola announces his intentions. Project Pep has already brought City six Premier League titles, one Champions League, two FA Cups, and five League Cups. Their top-of-the-table showdown against Arsenal on Sunday will go a long way to determining whether a seventh championship is on the way.
If we are approaching the endgame, however, that means it will be Guardiola’s replacement who has to deal with all the fallout when the Premier League finally announces its judgement over the 115 charges that have been hanging over City in relation to the alleged financial breaches they deny. Does Kompany really want to be in that position? Does he want to face that uncertainty and potential for heavy punishment? Unlikely, in the extreme.
More than anything, it feels like a question of timing. Take a poll of City fans to ask who they would like as their next manager, and Kompany would win by a landslide. Very few would choose Enzo Maresca or feel greatly encouraged that the former Chelsea manager, once a member of Guardiola’s coaching staff, appears to be the favourite for the job.
Yet the lesson of history would suggest that Kompany is better staying where he is for the time being.
David Moyes lasted under a season when Sir Alex Ferguson anointed him as ‘The Chosen One’ at Manchester United. Unai Emery found it a difficult slog after Arsene Wenger’s departure from Arsenal.
It can be challenging, to say the least, to replace a manager who is regarded as one of the genuine greats of his profession. And whoever takes over from Guardiola will be viewed through that lens. Everything will be compared to the previous manager. Every bad result or drop in form will be used as hard evidence that City, post-Guardiola, are no longer the same scary team. Far better, Kompany might think, to be further down the line of succession. At the age of 40, there is plenty of time.
The biggest point, however, is that Kompany should have everything he wants at his current club.
Bayern are a formidable operation. His relations with the people above him — always a big consideration at the Allianz Arena — are stronger than was the case for Tuchel, a more prickly and divisive figure. The club have some exceptional young players, and if there is one guarantee, it is that they have more success ahead of them.
One day, it feels inevitable that he will return to the club where he spent 11 years as a player, winning four Premier League titles. He might end up being the perfect fit for City. Just not yet, when his work at Bayern is only really just beginning.