Vincent Kompany was denied Man Utd transfer because Sir Alex Ferguson became “smitten”

Vincent Kompany faces Manchester United as a manager for the first time on Saturday night as Turf Moor – with his Burnley side as keen for a positive result as the Red Devils.

The former Manchester City captain enjoyed a record-breaking first campaign at the helm of the Clarets, whom he guided to last season’s Championship title at a canter. The early stages of this campaign have been a lot tougher, with just one point from their opening four games.

The Belgian is an icon at United’s Manchester rival’s City, but it could all have been so different for the former central defender – who was a transfer target for United while he was a youth team star at Anderlecht, with Sir Alex Ferguson personally scouting the promising player.

Ferguson’s 2015 book, Leading , featured a document of player analysis ahead of the 2004-05 season – with United trailing Chelsea and Arsenal domestically. It described a list of defensive transfer targets which included Kompany, alongside Gabriel Heinze, Gerard Pique, and Philippe Mexes.

United would eventually sign Heinze and Pique, while the Frenchman Mexes would join Roma from Auxerre – despite United inviting him over to Manchester and giving him a shirt signed by French icon Mexes.

Yet it was Kompany, who would go on to join Hamburg in the summer of 2006 before joining City two years later, who was the run who got away. Ferguson later detailed how the youth match in which he had specifically gone to monitor the Belgian had seen him attracted to another player.

“When I went to the Celtic v Anderlecht Champions League tie in Glasgow in November 2003, it was to watch the Belgian defender Vincent Kompany,” Ferguson said in 2018. “However, my attention soon gravitated to Celtic’s energetic young midfielder, slight of stature but with an assured, calm way about him.

“What I witnessed was a player with a tremendous set of midfield fundamentals — his movement off the ball, his penetration of the Anderlecht midfield. I came away smitten by his performance, not least the timing of his runs. Leaving Parkhead I was totally determined to get Liam Miller to Manchester United.”

Irish midfielder Miller joined United several months later and would make 22 first-team appearances before moving to Leeds on a loan deal and then joining Sunderland permanently in 2006. Tragically, Miller died on 9 February 2018, only four days shy of his 37th birthday, four months after it was made public that Miller was receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer.

In 2015, Kompany revealed that United had enquired about his future while he was still a youngster in Brussels: “United asked about me, but I had other priorities at the time. I was studying for my A-levels and my mother made me finish my education before I could concentrate on football.

“It’s a massive honour to be captain of this club and I can tell you that I feel really good. I have put my sweat and blood into Manchester City. I’m passionate about the club and I want success as much as the owners.”

Kompany went on to make 360 appearances for City, winning 12 trophies including four league titles and a lengthy period of the club’s captain, before joining Anderlecht in 2019. He will be hoping his Burnley side can make United have more regrets on Saturday.

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