Vincent Kompany: ‘A shift in power? Only if City dominate for another 10 years’

Almost a decade after his arrival marked a new era in English football, Vincent Kompany is in a good position to make a judgment. Having started his career at Anderlecht, the future Manchester City captain was a fresh-faced 22-year-old when he was purchased from Hamburg at the end of August 2008 by Mark Hughes, the first of a total of 78 signings totalling more than £1bn that have transformed the club since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover that summer.

As a result, with Pep Guardiola’s vibrant team turning heads around Europe as they prepare to face Manchester United in the most significant derby for years, Kompany is by now well-versed in answering the city’s perennial question. “A shift in power? I’d like to see us dominate for another 10 years,” he says.

As the son of a political refugee from Zaire who became a diplomat, and with a mother who was a trade-union leader in Brussels, Kompany has never been afraid to voice an opinion.

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He established himself as City’s captain within two seasons of joining and has since led them to two Premier League titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup, enabling the “noisy neighbours” to overtake United in the years since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. But at 31 and with a list of injuries (18) that exceeds the number of goals he has scored in a sky-blue shirt (16), the Belgium defender knows he can take nothing for granted as the final year of his contract approaches.

“I have been a part of trying to turn this club around. When I signed for City we were out and about in town a lot because we weren’t the big dogs in the city,” he recalls. “That’s changed a bit now. We’re now more like an international club, but it wasn’t like that when I signed. When the owners came to Manchester City they decided they wanted to make this club a huge club in England. At the same time, there was a huge gap left when Ferguson left United.

“It’s been a case that as one Manchester club was going through a rebuilding phase, we were in the ascendancy. But one thing I would like to say, touching on Ferguson, is that it is absolutely normal that when a person has had such a big influence on a club for such a long time, there will always be a big rebuilding job to do once he has left.

“That’s why I am reluctant to say there has been a shift in power. I’m not defending United. They have made a huge investment to try to close the gap on us and fill the void left by Ferguson. But it is normal that it would take them a few years to steady the ship once he left.”

Eight points separate the two rivals at the top of the table going into Sunday’s meeting at Old Trafford, with City aiming to match Arsenal’s record of 14 successive Premier League victories. Kompany will face a late fitness test after withdrawing from the team that went on to lose to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday, because of an injury he sustained in the warm-up in Ukraine. Having already missed almost three months of the campaign following yet another calf problem, his desire to be involved in Guardiola’s all-conquering team is clear.

“The first thing you feel [when you are injured] is: ‘I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of this’. And as soon as the game finishes you’re thinking: ‘I need to train, I need to do something, I need to somehow get myself back on track to participate’,” Kompany says.

“I feel like it’s a great sense of motivation you get out of it. What I have learned over the years, and this could help a lot of players when they go through an injury spell, is that you can still improve when you’re injured, even if you’re not on the pitch or lacing up your boots.

“Just by visualising and imagining yourself in certain situations and that idea of doing the movements, the defending, I think that’s the key as to why I’ve always been able to slot right back in even though I’ve not been playing for a month, two months. I’ve just visualised myself among the lads so many times doing it and if the physical aspect of it is OK you come back and realise you have made improvements.”

With John Stones absent until the new year, City’s achilles heel at the back could yet be exposed should their captain face another spell on the sidelines. A United side deprived of the suspended Paul Pogba may not be the best-equipped to take advantage, although Kompany remains wary of the threat posed by his compatriot Romelu Lukaku despite his recent barren run in front of goal. Kompany is also at pains to warn against any complacency should they emerge with the points. This is still City, after all.

“We haven’t won anything. For all it is worth, we are just a few points ahead of them and that is it. Everything else, the style and how we play and how we get the results, it won’t matter until we have some silverware to show for it. So until then, I wouldn’t be worried if I was another club. If we start winning stuff consistently and in two or three years’ time we are having the same discussion, it is a different debate then. But not at the moment.”