The inside story of how Vincent Kompany became the hottest coach in Europe at Bayern Munich: A 'brutal truth', set-piece obsession and making Harry Kane better than ever

He still trains with the lads, Vincent Kompany. Not as often these days because Bayern Munich’s sessions are a little intense and he keeps suffering injuries during them but the legendary centre half can still mix it in the rondos.

That gusto almost cost him last summer. Bayern’s squad were boarding their plane for the Club World Cup as the manager was still having scans to ascertain whether or not he could actually fly after feeling something in training. Fortunately he was passed just about fit enough.

‘It’s one of the reasons I stopped my career and I get reminded of it every now and then when I push myself too hard,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport.

‘It’s sometimes good to be in the middle of them, it takes down the barrier – when they’re playing and see that the coach makes mistakes as well, loses the ball. Sometimes, as long as I’m able to do it, it’s not bad. But as it gets colder, there is even less chance that I do it!’

It was well below sub-zero in Munich last weekend and this Bundesliga defence is ice cold – Bayern are Europe’s only unbeaten side, with 10 wins from 11 – and Freiburg were hammered after having the temerity to take a two-goal lead. There were five different goalscorers in the 6-2 win, Michael Olise shining bright and a 17-year-old attacker named Lennart Karl already being likened to Lionel Messi.

On only his third league start, Karl – who is represented by Michael Ballack – ran the game from pockets of space and then expertly dodged the questions around comparisons with his idol when asked in front of the TV cameras later on.

It's a juggernaut rolling in to north London this week for probably the most eye-catching game in the Champions League league phase so far. The miserly Arsenal, beginning to find real fluidity going forward too, against a team that has 62 goals in 17 matches in all competitions – not far off four per game. Kompany, quite astonishingly, looks set to become the first Bayern coach since Pep Guardiola a decade ago to last two full seasons in charge.

They are the team to watch on the continent this season, free-flowing attacking that allows Harry Kane to drop wherever he likes – often as part of the back four against midtable Freiburg – and a freestyling and almost street attitude around the final third that leans into their quality.

It’s quite a sight to witness and proof that Bayern were right to take a gamble on a young manager who had just suffered relegation with Burnley last year. Other options failed to materialise and Kompany has grasped the opportunity.

Director of sport Max Eberl had been tracking Kompany for 12 months, glued to the Premier League campaign and regularly seeking counsel from players who had worked with him. Three phone conversations, each lasting hours, convinced Eberl to travel to Manchester in the hope of sealing a deal.

Honorary president Uli Hoeness told him not to leave Kompany’s house until it was done and after six hours in his company, the ex-Belgium captain saying he’d talk things over with his family, Eberl lay on his sofa. Eberl confessed to a confused Kompany: ‘Uli said I can't leave until you've said yes.’

‘He kept his style in the Premier League after the Championship (promotion),’ Eberl tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘People say it’s a negative point because he didn’t change but for me it’s a good thing to keep to your philosophy. But you need the players for this. With Burnley in the Premier League it was difficult. The year I followed him gave us a good feeling with the quality of players we have.

‘I talked to him and said, “I know you and I know the club”. I tried to convince him that it could be a great chance for him. It’s a little bit risky for us but we were convinced. My feeling kept growing that he is the right type for a club like Bayern, with so many politics and rumours around. His behaviour helps us a lot. For me he is a top coach and a top human being. As a combination that is very rare – and I know a lot of coaches!’

What Eberl is saying there is that the long hangover from Bayern’s FC Hollywood days – the age of celebrity and media bravado, Thomas Tuchel regularly outspoken, would you believe – still lingers and Kompany, straight as a die, cuts through that.

‘There is no BS with him,’ Kane tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘A lot of footballers, and people generally, appreciate that.’

Whether Kompany – bouncing and bounding up the Allianz Arena touchline on Saturday – required any convincing is up for some debate, given the unshakeable belief in his own ability.

Yet he was surprised to receive the call, while his predecessor at Turf Moor, Sean Dyche, has since said sarcastically: ‘I don’t know how that works. I wish I'd have left the club £127million in debt and then got the Bayern job. Anyway, there's an interesting twist of life.’ That was on talkSPORT and he rowed back slightly on it during a subsequent gig with The Overlap.

The Clarets were crestfallen at the time, chairman Alan Pace in tears, while squeezing what they could out of Bayern. The compensation package eventually hit £10.2million and some of that was for the little-known Rodyse Munienge, who never had a job title. 

Burnley knew Kompany wasn’t leaving without Munienge – someone who had always been by his side, through his playing career as well, while running a bodyguard service that also specialised in covert surveillance – and are understood to have netted a six-figure compensation.

‘A genius appointment,’ one source says. Munienge – ‘Big Ro’ – has flown drones at training, also delighting superstars when sticking shots ‘top bins’ at the end of sessions, and his primary function is to promote harmony.

He does so with skill and ease. The players love him – and so do the German public, consumed by his Instagram output. Naturally, he acts as Kompany’s eyes and ears.

Munienge went to school with Kompany in Brussels and so did first-teach coach Floribert N'Galula, who also came through Anderlecht’s academy and joined Manchester United at 16. Kompany’s lifelong friends are the good cop to his bad – and documentary cameras at Burnley caught how aggressive the manager can be with his squad. 

N’Galula is a tactical sounding board, not afraid to call his boss out, and will quietly reinforce messages with players on an individual basis. ‘If you’re not playing and knock on Vincent’s door, expect the brutal truth,’ a source says.

As Eberl alluded to, the fit does feel good. Kompany watched Bayern’s women beat Arsenal earlier this month and sat courtside at the basketball against Barcelona. He’s been to the ice hockey, too. He throws himself into jobs and that is why his exit was ultimately so painful for Burnley.

They knew Kompany's aura and conviction. Some who have observed him at close quarters in Munich compare him to Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen in that sense. Both are commanding presences in public, Kompany at ease and cracking wise with his sporting director Christoph Freund during Friday’s media duties.

His German is superb – he spent two years at Hamburg before joining City in 2008 – although he reverts back to English when discussing more precise tactical details. Those have elevated Kane to a different level. Or so says Kane himself.

‘I think this is the most I’ve been enjoying my football because I’m involved more,’ the England captain adds.

‘He’s definitely improved me. I love tackling, helping the team, blocking shots. I’ll be judged on goals but I think this season people are appreciating some of the other stuff I do as well.’

Given the effort Kompany demands of his No 9 (central attackers regularly drop into central midfield, with the wingers high and wide), is this the fittest he’s felt? ‘You could say that,’ he says.

'The way we play, man-for-man, obviously makes me do that. At Tottenham, with (Antonio) Conte, we ran! That was a pretty tough time, a tough pre-season! I feel like I’m affecting the game with and without the ball much more than I ever have in previous years.’

Kane has discussed Kompany wanting to fine-tune his body shape, to make him smoother on the turn. And Dayot Upamecano – scorer on Saturday from a set-piece devised by assistant coach Aaron Danks, who learned under Kompany at Anderlecht and then Dean Smith, Steven Gerrard and Michael Carrick at Aston Villa and Middlesbrough – has revealed an obsession with positioning and how to approach balls.

Video analysis can take up to 40 minutes and Kompany is particular. It sounds a little like one of his old bosses, who may have lifted a few league titles. If the hours of video analysis sound a touch dry then the end product certainly isn’t. Hoeness took Kompany out for dinner recently and told him as much.

‘Before, you'd hope the game would end soon in the 80th minute,’ Hoeness says. 

‘Now, in the 80th minute, you're saying: “I hope they keep playing for a long time, because it's so much fun!” The players are having fun. And we in the stands are having fun too.’