Vincent Kompany still a happy manager despite tough season

Vincent Kompany has insisted he is still loving life at Burnley despite their struggles at the foot of the Premier League.

Burnley have spent the entire season to date in the bottom three and will be relegated this weekend if they fail to take anything less than a win away to Tottenham, and even that would not be enough should Nottingham Forest beat Chelsea on Saturday evening.

The Clarets have won only five of their 36 league games this season, a far cry from Kompany’s first campaign last term when they stormed to the Championship title with 101 points.

Kompany also had huge success as a player with Manchester City, but this season has learned the harsh lessons of life at the other end of the table.

“You really can (still enjoy it),” Kompany said. “You enjoy it more when you’ve won at the end of the week but I didn’t sign up as a manager (thinking) I can only have success and if I don’t have success the job is rubbish. I signed up for the full package.

“I knew this was a part of it and you learn as you go through it and I’ve learned from this team, this experience with this club.

“Even in the most difficult times I love the job, I love working with these players, I love trying to help the club reach its objectives. That’s something that really lives and it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost one game or 15 games, that’s stayed. But I want to win of course.”

After giving themselves genuine hope of avoiding the drop with a run of only one defeat in eight, Burnley suffered a 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle last weekend which, coupled with Forest’s win over Sheffield United, left them on the brink of an immediate return to the Championship.

That has made Saturday’s match a must-win before Forest visit Turf Moor next weekend, but Kompany said he had not needed to do much to lift the mood around the club.

“I think you want to keep a certain structure, for sure, keep a certain discipline or idea towards the game, because that’s also a reason why certain players have improved this season,” he said.

“But in terms of the energy for the week, you have to feel it. It just depends on the week it is and sometimes it can even depend on the weather.

“It won’t surprise you but if you turn up for training every day and the sun is shining, like it has been this week, naturally you have a lift anyway, so we’ve had that.

“It’s not been a case of having to dig really deep to find it, it’s been there and you also tune into what the team really needs.”

Burnley have earned encouraging draws away to Chelsea and Manchester United in the last few weeks, but now need to go one better against a side chasing the European places and actually win.

“It’s shackles off. I’ve mentioned it many times, but we need to have a no fear mentality, a no fear attitude and we have to go all out,” Kompany said.

“I hope we can do something special, not just for the players but also for the fans. It’s been a journey for them as well this season, especially off the back of last season, but they’ve been there all the way with us, so they’re the ones we really want to reward.”