Former Burnley manager Vincent Kompany claims he lost his cool with Johann Berg Gudmundsson last season because they were ‘giving our lives for our club’.
For the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, the Clarets granted Sky Sports behind-the-scenes access to record a documentary series on the club.
Ahead of the release of season two, a clip emerged on social media of Kompany berating Gudmundsson at training with exasperation and ferocity.
“Joey, don’t f***ing test me. Do not f***ing test me. Enough of the f***ing moaning. Enough of the f***ing moaning!” Kompany shouted.
“Play f***ing football. You’ve got to f***ing work for everything. F***ing play! How many times do I have to tell you? Stop f***ing moaning.
“What? Have you got something you want to communicate to the team?
“You want to communicate something, you big boy? You’re a big boy, you want to talk?”
After Gudmundsson protested his innocence, Kompany retorted: “No, you’re moaning about everything!
“Body language is f***ing s*** and I’m not accepting it. Play! F***ing hell man.”
“It’s f***ing life or death. F***ing play! F***ing… I’ve had a f***ing enough of this!”
Burnley ended up getting relegated from the Premier League, and Kompany was appointed as the head coach of Bayern Munich.
In an interview with DH les Sports+, Kompany elaborated on the verbal bust-up with Gudmundsson.
“I’ve also explained to him calmly!” Kompany laughed. “This is actually the first time this year at Bayern that i don’t have a camera crew filming my entire season for a documentary. It was the case at Anderlecht and Burnley.
“When every speech and every training session is filmed, there’s always a moment like that. But the message of all that is that we are giving our lives for our club. If the club gets relegated, people will lose their jobs. we have a responsibility.
“We should never find ourselves in a situation where we have a lack of attention. It wasn’t about a bad pass or a bad tactical choice, but about fundamental things: running and fighting for each other.
“He had broken the basic principles.”