What Vincent Kompany said about Burnley during his 42-minute unveiling as Bayern Munich boss

The former Clarets boss mixed his answers between English and German as he took questions from the local media.

Intriguingly, Kompany didn’t use the word “Burnley” once, although he did make reference to his two-year spell at Turf Moor.

The 38-year-old also claimed he had interest from other clubs before his decision to leave East Lancashire, but says he never went looking for it.

Here’s a selection of his answers:

How have you settled in at Bayern?

“I just joined the club but I had some time to speak with [sporting directors] Max [Eberl] and Christoph [Freund} and other people inside the club, so now I’m starting to understand the recruitment process.

“I can say the fact I am here means they are doing a very good job. That’s it.”

What style of football do you want to play?

“From my side it’s very simple, as a coach you have to coach who you are as a person and as a person I grew up in the streets of Brussels, I played football on the streets and I was in the academy at Anderlecht where from the age of six to 20 you you have to win everything, you have to be the best team.

“I want the players of Bayern Munich to be brave, really brave on the ball and show personality on the ball, but also my nature is I’m someone who was aggressive, so I want the team to be aggressive.

“I want them to be absolutely brave on the ball when they have to make a decision and absolutely aggressive through every minute of the game.”

Has this job at a top club come earlier than expected?

“My mentality is I never worked for a top club in my head.

“A top club is the environment you create, the work you do with your players, the work you do with your staff. It’s the mentality you have towards your job in good times, in bad times. That’s what defines, for me, working at a top level.

“It already feels like home, if I’m being honest. I feel it’s a place where I can continue this idea.”

Did you think from the beginning of Bayern’s managerial search you were among the candidates?

“From my side, I didn’t think about it too much. You have to understand one thing, being a coach it consumes every minute of every day. While I was being a coach and while I was doing my job, I didn’t have any time to think about anything else.

“When Max and Christoph called and we eventually met, I didn’t have a plan in my head to do anything. I was just doing my job.

“At the very end, just so you understand how I am a little bit, at the very end you mention one club, but I’m a very private person. Very, very private person. But I was actually quite fortunate to have a lot of interest from other clubs as well, but I never went looking for anything. I wasn’t interested in anything.

“I was happy to meet people and I met good people and that was my decision.

“I feel like the players and the people inside the club, when we speak about football we understand the same thing. Also the values and what we believe in, so then I felt ‘okay I have to do this’.

“But I wasn’t thinking too much about ‘I have to go there’ or ‘I have to do this’. There was nothing like this.”

How did your family react to the move to Munich? And how will you cope with the intense pressure from the media?

“My family was happy that the first move, when we went from Manchester to Brussels, was a first test of how you feel going to another country. For them anyway, not for me.

“They adapted very well and we had some really good moments, so for them going to Munich is something they are looking forward to because of the experience in Brussels.

“The outside pressure, everyone has their own ways of dealing with it. For me, it’s never affected me.

“Those who have followed me from 17 years old as a player, in my interviews and everything I said will know exactly this.

“I respect that I have to communicate in some way because it makes my job easier if I do the press conferences well. I respect that people will have an opinion and sometimes it’s 10,000 people and sometimes it’s 10 million people.

“But in the way I see the job, the thing I control is the players and the job we do every single day, together with Max, Christoph and so many other people. If there we are the best, then the outside world will follow one way or another.”

You had a clear identity at Burnley, are you able to continue that with Bayern or will you have to adapt?

“I went to Belgium and then they ask ‘do you have to adapt your way of playing?’. Then I went to the Championship and they ask ‘do you have to adapt your way of playing?’. Then the Premier League, ‘do you have to adapt your way of playing?’

“In the Championship we were the big team, in the Premier League we were one of the smallest teams. In Belgium we were the youngest team and so on and so on.

“In the end, most of the things that I will bring are things you bring to help the players, no matter what the level is. You do what you need to do to help the players and win games and to do that you need clarity.

“Of course I have a clear idea and I will also follow this idea, but in the end everything you do is to help the players, wherever you are, in whatever division, at any level.”

Were you surprised to get the call after relegation with Burnley? And what’s the most important thing you learned from this season with Burnley?

“The aspect of being surprised is because you assume that it was the only club that called. You assume it was the only interest I had. You only assume that because I’m very private.

“By that time, I was not surprised. Perhaps with the first phone call, but it wasn’t Bayern Munich.

“My point is, I live my job too intensely to speculate too much or make any distinctions whatsoever.

“The opportunity was there to work with great people, that’s why I signed. I was convinced by Christoph and Max by the idea they have for the future. Later I was convinced by everybody else that I met that they are going in the right direction.

“At top clubs like Bayern Munich, internally you have to be on the same line. Whether the outside world thinks you are or not is not important, it’s on the inside of the building. I felt that and that’s why the opportunity was so interesting.

“You also learn a lot by yourself. It’s the only thing I want to say about it but in the first year [at Burnley], you have 46 games, we only lost three games and we got 101 points. The highest of the highest the club has ever achieved in terms of points return.

“The next year, you have a tough season in the Premier League. Of course at the start of the season we knew we were bottom three in terms of budget, but it doesn’t matter. The feeling is always you can do something.

“But what you learn about yourself in the very highs and the very lows is you can be consistent. I wasn’t any different when we were champions two months before the end of the season, I didn’t prepare training any differently. I didn’t approach players differently, I didn’t work less to prepare games.

“When we were struggling and losing, I didn’t start the first day of the week complaining about my players, they’re not good enough, they’re not scoring etc. I didn’t, I stayed calm and I supported my players and my staff.

“We stayed calm. The building was extremely motivated, the energy was there until the last training session of the season. But to put yourself in those two extremes, it’s not easy to be consistent like this.

“Now you talk about this club [Bayern], I have no intention to all of a sudden become a different person. I don’t think that’s what they want.”

Will you now get time to rest?

"I promise you the next four days I am not working. I said two weeks ago that the next two weeks I’m not working, but because we were making the deal with Bayern I’ve already took 10 days out of this.

"But I promise the next four days I will rest. After that, doing this job I love it. It’s work but it’s not work.

"I don’t have a real lifestyle outside of this, my lifestyle is this job that I love and I’m all in, so it can’t come soon enough.”