It seemed somewhere between brave and foolish for Vincent Kompany to stake his professional reputation on Burnley this summer. The club were shipping out all their best players and wound up spending £40million less than they spent in the window, to help settle a £60million loan which fell on their owners because of relegation from the Premier League.
The victory which saw the side rise to fourth on Saturday was testament to the way Kompany has mined his contacts book to completely rebuild and introduce a devotion to passing which, with greatest respect to Sean Dyche, has been alien in these parts.