Vincent Kompany wants Manchester City to be more Mancunian and believes it will help them become more of a world force, reports the Daily Mirror.
Ahead of Sunday’s big derby with Manchester United, Kompany spoke about the importance of local heritage and praised the city of Manchester.
He wants City to show what Manchester is all about and brand it as part of their legacy, making them a super-power of world football.
The City skipper said: “One of the biggest challenges is that we have all these great players from great places but there’s something fundamentally different to Manchester as to other cities.”
“I think for Man City to become one of the biggest clubs in the world it will have to go back to being more Mancunian than ever and to expose that as a brand and a way of being.”
Kompany thinks the whole club needs to harness the spirit of Manchester and that it will result in a bigger fan base. He preached: “There is just something special about that industrial past of Manchester that somehow needs to filter through the youth teams and filter through the first team. This factor is something that people will support Manchester City for.”
The Belgian was an anchor at the back for City during the start of the season and helped them keep five successive clean sheets. However, after a calf injury caused controversy following an international appearance, Kompany has found himself on the substitute’s bench for the last two games and has a fight to get back in the first team.
“Every game I have played so far this season has been really good so I wanted to keep that going, so an injury is never a nice thing to happen at that moment.”
He continued: “But, having said that, I came back against Israel [on October 13] and it was fine and I felt good and was able to produce the same level of performance again. It just has to carry on.”
Manuel Pellegrini denied gossip that he was punishing Kompany for appearing for Belgium while injured, claiming it was too much of a ‘risk’ to include the captain in wins over Bournemouth and Sevilla.
The former Anderlecht defender hopes he can convince Pellegrini of his worth in time to play in Sunday’s crunch clash against United at Old Trafford.
