Vincent Kompany: Why Burnley fans are standing by their manager despite relegation looming

Burnley fans are hugely loyal by nature.

One of the first songs I ever sung in the early 1970’s was ‘Bob Lord out!’ but crucially he was a chairman – when we turn at Turf Moor we tend to go for the owners, not the man in the dugout.

So I would say (fairly) categorically that despite Burnley being second from bottom of the Premier League, Vincent Kompany has nothing to worry about at the moment as far as supporters are concerned.

Mind you, this season has been pretty diabolical.

Possession is repeatedly lost, our defence is easily breached and, most frustratingly of all, basic errors are constantly repeated.

Nine defeats on the road (my 19-hour round trip to Brentford included) and 11 at home tells a stark story.

Having said that, I’ve only heard the occasional boo.

The loudest noise from Burnley fans this season seems to be the sound of heads being scratched.

Just what has gone so wrong compared to the team that tore the Championship apart and won the title at our bitter rivals Blackburn Rovers last season?

Vincent has said repeatedly that he has a four-year plan for the club.

We went up in year one. Was that too early?

Has a winning team been broken up needlessly?

Out of the starting XI in our latest defeat by Bournemouth at the weekend, there were only three starters from last season.

Manuel Benson and Anas Zaroury were two wingers who were unplayable in the Championship. This season Benson has a season ticket for our bench and Zaroury is on loan at Hull City.

Is Kompany’s new Brighton-esque model of buying cheap and selling high, too ambitious?

Certainly not one of our 19 new signings (note to BBC Verify – we’ve all actually lost count) and who have collectively cost £100m+ has enhanced his reputation.

So why the patience when many other Premier League fan-bases would have panicked?

Well, Kompany has a lot of credit in the bank.

Last season was the most exciting one I’ve ever witnessed. We don’t forget 101 points easily in our neck of the woods.

Also, he has thrown himself 100% into the dogfight that constitutes being from Burnley in a league where the likes of Manchester City could buy the whole town (population 94,000) and turn it into a theme park just to remind their fans what it used to be like to struggle.

And in very short order he has comprehensively turned a robust Burnley playing style (I’m not knocking Sean Dyche – he took us to Europe!) into a thing of beauty. Last season we were shouting ‘ole!’ at so many matches we might well have been watching bullfights.

However, watching our two centre-halves strolling out from the back, beating three players and pinging a perfect pass to the man on the touchline is far more likely against Rotherham than Premier League attacks.

Try that against Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs (and believe me we have) – and you’ll be punished.

Which brings me to my final reason why fans are sticking by our manager.

We’re assuming he’s learning.

He sussed the Championship in next to no time.

This will truly be a completely wasted Premier League season if Vincent doesn’t come out of the other end of relegation wiser, more pragmatic and ready to give it another go in Claret and Blue.

I can’t speak for the board, who didn’t hang about when it came to sacking Sean Dyche.

And I can’t obviously speak for all fans – but the consensus, for now, seems to be that we’re still very much Kompany men and women.