Pep Guardiola. Carlo Ancelotti. Jupp Heynckes.
Niko Kovac. Hansi Flick. Julian Nagelsmann.
And now, apparently, Vincent Kompany . Even as much as some of those names above have little or no tactical similarity to follow each other, the current Burnley boss will be an outlier if he’s appointed as Bayern Munich boss . Even as one or two of those names were fairly inexperienced coaches at the time of their appointments, the Belgian is still an outlier.
Nagelsmann was of course young in years for such a top job, but had half a decade of senior coaching behind him already. Kovac, as well as being a former player at Bayern, had over two seasons at a Bundesliga rival and two years as a national team boss to his name, including a World Cup campaign. And while Flick hadn’t been a head coach for nearly 15 years before taking the reins at the Allianz, he had enormous experience in senior roles including national team assistant and sporting director.
Kompany has none of that. He has two seasons in the Belgian Pro League, ranked eighth-best in the continent by Uefa, plus one season in the English Championship and one in the Premier League, where he won five games and was relegated. So how have one of Europe’s superpowers arrived at the decision to hire him? It’s fair to first acknowledge that, despite Kompany being quite some distance down the wishlist of the Bavarian club, there are plenty of reasons why he might carry the required aura.
In particular, in a dressing room that exp.
