RSC Anderlecht, winning Premier League promotion with Burnley, and then getting relegated with Burnley back down to the English Football Championship League — it’s not quite exactly the career sheet that transitions into the Bayern Munich job, but that is exactly what happened for Vincent Kompany.

The rumor mill wheels were turning fast when Bayern announced Thomas Tuchel would be leaving the club at the end of last season, but Kompany’s name really did not emerge as a prime replacement candidate until after other candidates had turned the job down. Julian Nagelsmann wanted to extend his contract with the German national team, Ralf Rangnick wanted to stay with the Austria national team, and Xabi Alonso wanted to stay with Bayer Leverkusen. Former Bayern and Germany manager Hansi Flick also had his heart set on Barcelona, and that’s where he wound up.

Fast forward to now, and Kompany has Bayern sitting atop the Bundesliga table and well within reach of automatic qualification for the Champions League knockouts with the new format that has been introduced for this season onward. It certainly has not been perfect for the Belgian manager, but he has, for intents and purposes, adjusted quite well to making the jump from Burnley to Bayern.
“That’s an interesting question that we’ve often discussed before. Many clubs in England do things a little differently. I already played in Germany as a player, so I know the system here. I have a good role here,” Kompany replied when he was asked about the differences between managing in Germany versus England in the press conference ahead of the Bundesliga clash against RB Leipzig 

“Many discussions with the players can be spread over several parties. I talk to the players about their development, Christoph and Max talk to the agents and the players about contractual matters. It’s important to speak with one voice and be on the same page. We can complement each other well,” Kompany continued in his assessment of the differences between managing in Germany and England.

The front office structure at Bayern and in Germany is certainly a little bit different than it is in the Premier League or Championship in England.
Back when the summer transfer window was still open, Kompany, Christoph Freund and Max Eberl had made it a point to have the latter two be the ones to field questions about player transfer rumors and contract situations in press conferences as opposed to having Kompany answer all of them. The manager wanted to focus solely on the football and have the sporting director and board member for sport take care of the public conversations about transfer rumors — something that really is not seen in England as the managers take the brunt of those particular questions.