Football
Burnley ready to fight back into the Premier League
Motivated Burnley boss Vincent Kompany is eager to learn from this season’s mistakes following the Clarets' relegation from the Premier League. Despite a disappointing season, Kompany is already planning for a return to the top tier.
Image Credits: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
Motivated Burnley boss Vincent Kompany is desperate to learn from this season’s mistakes. The misfiring Clarets finished the season with a 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Turf Moore with nothing to play for but pride with their Premier League relegation confirmed.
Having picked up just FIVE wins all season, Belgian coach Kompany has already started planning on getting the club back to the top tier.
“It’s such a tough task [winning promotion again] – but that’s what we need to respect,” Kompany told SportsBoom.com. “It can’t be a bigger achievement than before, that’s impossible.”
“But just yet I’m not talking about promotion because the Championship is too brutal. It’s 46 games, you could be unlucky with injuries and you can be there with stronger teams as well.”
“There’s so many variables that, at this moment in time, we can’t look any further than game one and making sure we perform. We always said in the first year that we wanted to be near the play-off places by December and in touch.”
I know the ambitions are higher now, but we’ve just have to make sure we respect the league and respect the work we have to do. Personally I like to cover the downside, which is the reason why the club is really calm and not in panic mode.
Vincent Kompany
Image Credits: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
Kompany not underestimating the scale of the task
“I won’t take anything for granted. People will think we will cruise in the Championship, but that’s not the case. As long as the hunger is there – and I really feel that right now – then we’re always in a good place to start the season. Then we’ve got to do it [perform] on the pitch.”
Kompany has stressed that he won’t be basking in former glories of the season when his triumphant team amassed an impressive 101 points to clinch the Championship title in his first season in charge.
“I’m actually not going to make a big feature of what we’ve achieved before. I don’t want to hear about what we did last season,” he added. “When you’re in successful teams, what you probably do the least is talk about the last season.
“Imagine you win the title and you’re there lining up the next campaign, well you’re not sitting there talking about what you did before. That’s irrelevant to me. The main thing for me is that we try the best we can to give ourselves the chance to get back amongst the elite.”
“You have to be willing to learn. I’m still very hungry and motivated. I have full belief in a lot of people here and in myself. I just want to win. I’m passionate about the job and helping players get better, it’s not just about the end product.”
“It’s exciting because I know we can get results and what we can achieve. How do you improve? Well, you know what, you build experience. And I think that’s why the team improved during the season.”
“But you don’t get punished at the Championship level as much as you at the other level, at Premier League level you do.”
Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.