Vincent Kompany - 2018/19 Performances

[kaz7]

Worth keeping as a fourth choice for cup matches, big games and lifting trophies if he's happy with that. No need to sell him (because nobody will buy him), no need to play him as often as we once did (because we have Stones and Laporte), no need to let him rot away in the reserves (because he's good enough when fit). The best solution is to have him start 5-10 league games per season and make up other appearances when he can. One of Pep's biggest accomplishments at City is moving us completely away from relying on Kompany and Yaya to win things, and it means we can offer a realistic situation to Vinny whereby he plays a lot less than he used to but still has a role in the dressing room.

His contract is up in june,why would rotting away in the reserves even enter your mind

 

[mosssideblue]

Worth keeping as a fourth choice for cup matches, big games and lifting trophies if he's happy with that. No need to sell him (because nobody will buy him), no need to play him as often as we once did (because we have Stones and Laporte), no need to let him rot away in the reserves (because he's good enough when fit). The best solution is to have him start 5-10 league games per season and make up other appearances when he can. One of Pep's biggest accomplishments at City is moving us completely away from relying on Kompany and Yaya to win things, and it means we can offer a realistic situation to Vinny whereby he plays a lot less than he used to but still has a role in the dressing room.

Give him a bit part and then not play someone else so Vinnie can lift the pots - not for me matey

 

[mosssideblue]

Skill wise, I think we are covered, what we haven't got is his leadership

 

[Saddleworth2]

Pay per play sounds sensible combined with a meaningful role at the club, maybe working with Txiki. He is just too valuable to let go.

 

[7evens]

His contract is up in june,why would rotting away in the reserves even enter your mind

It’s not an option I’d choose, it’s just a hypothetical scenario.

 

[bobom]

But what would he add? If he was only playing 5-10 matches a season, you'd not risk him against top teams, he'd be too rusty. And why would you play him against a weaker team when you could give a younger player the experience?

I say this as a big fan of his, and his awesome contribution over the last ten years, but I don't think it makes sense to keep him as a player. As an ambassador / mentor / pundit / any other role he'd be interested in - sign him up at all costs, and help him transition into his new career. He's part of the fabric of the club.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

We can be guilty as a club & fanbase of holding onto players for too long.

Yaya & even Zab were with us past thier sell by dates. It seems Vinny has reached/is reaching the end & much as I love him should perhaps have moved on in the summer but love is a two way thing.

 

[Mon Autre]

We can be guilty as a club & fanbase of holding onto players for too long.

Yaya & even Zab were with us past thier sell by dates. It seems Vinny has reached/is reaching the end & much as I love him should perhaps have moved on in the summer but love is a two way thing.

While I agree with you about holding onto players for too long, I think the above examples are slightly different. The problem with Toure and Zabaleta is that we didn't bring in their replacements soon enough. With Kompany we've already transitioned to the point where we're no longer reliant on him. He could be good to keep for one more year as back up while we monitor Garcia's progress. But I take the point that having an injury prone back up is problematic.

 

[jimharri]

It’s not an option I’d choose, it’s just a hypothetical scenario.

And not a very good one fella. No more than your idea of bringing him into the side to lift trophies.

 

[7evens]

And not a very good one fella. No more than your idea of bringing him into the side to lift trophies.

You're right, it's not a good idea to let him rot in the reserves. Has everyone deliberately misread my original post? I said we can't let him rot in the reserves because he's still more than good enough to contribute to the first team in his own way. That pretty clearly makes the point that I don't want him to rot in the reserves. Both you and Karen have jumped on that minor footnote in a much wider point and completely misinterpreted it in your subsequent posts.

There's a lot of talk as though only playing Kompany for 5-10 games in the league is a bad idea, but that's the strategy we've taken both this season and last season. He didn't even play in the 0-0 against Huddersfield but he still came out to lift the trophy. In fact, Pep even said this time last year that we'd use him specifically for this purpose ("We have to wait for Vincent to lift the titles"). We brought him back for the League Cup final, the home stretch, and the United game towards the end of last season, we brought him back for the Liverpool game earlier this month. I imagine the next month will be spent with him in rehab attempting to get him fit for the League Cup final again. It's how we should deploy him.

He's the club captain and deserves to continue to be, and the club captain should get to lift the trophies at the end of the season - should we win any. One of the biggest criticisms I've seen repeated this week is that this side lacks leadership without him and that you couldn't pick an obvious candidate to take over as captain should he leave - and it's highly unlikely that we'll name a new signing as the club captain in the summer, so I think a two-year extension with him as fourth choice CB is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to. Kompany won't meekly retire for a number of reasons and we can't sell him to another club for a number of reasons, so offering him a reduced role but with perks like appearing in big games and lifting the trophies we win seems like a decent compromise.

I don't want him to rot in the reserves.