Vincent Kompany to Chelsea: does Burnley boss have what it takes to revitalise the Blues?

Reports that Chelsea have drawn up a four-man shortlist for their managerial vacancy have focused on a somewhat surprising inclusion – Burnley’s Vincent Kompany. Alongside Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino and an unnamed additional candidate, the Belgian is apparently firmly in the thoughts of Todd Boehly as he looks to find a manager who can float a largely sunken ship at Stamford Bridge.

Kompany is by far the least experienced of the three named candidates – but having served his apprenticeship as Anderlecht manager, he has impressed immensely at Turf Moor with Burnley dominating the Championship this season, playing stylish and attacking football.

Burnley have lost just two of their 42 games so far in the second tier, racking up 92 points with four games left to play and having already sealed promotion – and they need just one more victory to wrap up a title that has looked inevitable for months. For a first year in English football management, in charge of a club that underwent a major refit after last season’s struggles, it’s an astonishing start.

He clearly spent a lot of time taking notes during his time playing under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. His fluid style, which sets up as a 4-3-3 but transitions to a three-at-the-back system in attack with a focus on offensive overloads, quick interchanges of play and makes use of inverted full-backs, is right from the proven Guardiola playbook – but what’s been especially impressive was how quickly he implemented it with a Burnley squad that had a huge turnover in the summer after they were relegated from the Premier League.

That style should, in theory, suit Chelsea for the most part. They have plenty of flexible, fast and technically-gifted attacking players and midfielders with the engines to keep up with a fast-moving possession system. There is a valid question over how effective Reece James or Ben Chilwell might adapt to being asked to play a narrower role, but otherwise Chelsea have a playing squad that could easily mesh well with Kompany’s preferred tactical set-up.

That doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be a big leap of faith to appoint Kompany – who is reportedly also under consideration for the Tottenham Hotspur job. His time at Anderlecht could be viewed as a managerial learning curve but he failed to win a trophy during his three-term tenure with the Belgian giants – although the failure of Scott Parker in the same role may hint that it isn’t as easy a job as one might think – and the fact remains that he’s only had one real home run season. That said, it was such a dominant season, in a typically difficult division, that it bodes well for Kompany’s future.

Of course, it won’t matter who Chelsea appoint if they don’t sort out their lopsided squad – and regain their self-belief after a rather soul-destroying season. Kompany’s players at Burnley certainly speak well of him as a manager and a motivator, however. As winger Jóhann Berg Guðmunsson told Lancs Live earlier in the season: “His work rate is unbelievable, his attention to detail is incredible. Every team he looks at, I don’t know how many games he looks at to scout them.

“He’s unbelievably driven and he drives this group forward every single day in training and if you’re not on it, he will let you know and that’s what you need to be a top professional. He knows how the game works.”

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Having won ten major trophies with Manchester City in a career that saw him regarded as one of the best centre-halves in the history of the league, he should at least command the respect of the dressing room – and he knows how to inspire and uplift his team. That said, turning a bedraggled Chelsea around would be a huge task – but we might just get to see if he can manage it.