There are plenty of similarities to the careers of Vincent Kopmany and John Stones, but coaching won’t be one of them.
As Manchester City prepare for a Friday night trip to Burnley, where they start the defence of a Premier League crown that has been on their heads since May 2021, England defender Stones has been quick to praise his former teammate, who is now the Clarets’ manager.
The City man made it clear, however, that despite the fact that they have both played in midfield and as defenders at the highest level, he will not be joining his Belgian friend on the training ground.
“Of those I have played with recently, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne would make good managers and probably Ruben Dias too,” said Stones. “Definitely not me though. I might eat my words but right now coaching doesn’t interest me.”
Despite his lack of enthusiasm for the top job in the future, Stones has credited Pep Guardiola for completely reinventing how he sees football and believes Kompany has all the qualities it takes to succeed.
“I messaged him when they got promoted, I was just so pleased for him,” said Stones, who was in City's starting XI for their season opening Community Shield defeat against Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday.
“I didn’t expect anything less to be honest given Vinnie’s character and desire. He will have gone in there with a target to be promoted and not expected anything less.”
The two men met last season when City handed Burnley a 6-0 drubbing on their way to winning the FA Cup – the middle leg of the historic treble that concluded with a Champions League final victory over Inter Milan in Istanbul.
“When we played Burnley at the Etihad in the FA Cup quarter-final I was so impressed by the way Vinnie had them playing,” recalled Stones. “It was a really difficult game, I know in the end the scoreline didn’t reflect that but I can assure you it was hard.
“Playing alongside him and sharing a dressing room with him I saw first-hand what a passion Vinnie has for the game, he is a winner and he won’t settle for second best.
“He will make a top-class manager. He has that empathy that you need. There are only a few people who know instinctively when to deliver a rocket and when to console you. He can read a dressing room.”
Ironically, when Kompany arrived at City from Hamburg he was a central midfielder and only later became a full-time defender. Stones has gone the opposite route with a hybrid role at City that sees him augment the engine room from the back line.
“I absolutely love it, I’m learning. Every year there’s something new,” he declared on the eve of a new season that could see him land a sixth Premier League title.
‘I always say when you’re happy, in anything, you enjoy it more. At the minute I’m happy and that’s when you can express yourself more. Pep saw with my attributes that he could simplify the game and help me improve and get better in that system. He’s unbelievable the way he sees the game.
Man City 2022/23 season ratings
“I have shown myself that I’m able to do it, maybe showing some attributes I didn’t know I had but the manager has seen in me.”
After their exploits last season in becoming only the second English team to land the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League treble, there are those who might question the desire – if not the ability – to go and do it all again but as the Burnley game draws close, Stones teammate, Nathan Ake, who signed a contract extension this summer, has poured cold water on that theory.
“Last season, after you have been fighting everything, maybe it takes a little while to get back to that level but from the very first day back in training this summer Pep went into that and made sure we were doing the same things we’ve always done that have brought so much success,” he said.
‘If you don’t start doing it straight away then it’s going to be too late; that’s why he’s hammered us straight away, so that we have the same work rate. He’s been on top of us.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Jumanji: The Next Level
Director: Jake Kasdan
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Nick Jonas
Two out of five stars
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Zayed Sustainability Prize
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
If you go
The flights
The closest international airport for those travelling from the UAE is Denver, Colorado. British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from the UAE via London from Dh3,700 return, including taxes. From there, transfers can be arranged to the ranch or it’s a seven-hour drive. Alternatively, take an internal flight to the counties of Cody, Casper, or Billings
The stay
Red Reflet offers a series of packages, with prices varying depending on season. All meals and activities are included, with prices starting from US$2,218 (Dh7,150) per person for a minimum stay of three nights, including taxes. For more information, visit red-reflet-ranch.net.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Scores
Scotland 54-17 Fiji
England 15-16 New Zealand
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Friday's schedule in Madrid
Men's quarter-finals
Novak Djokivic (1) v Marin Cilic (9) from 2pm UAE time
Roger Federer (4) v Dominic Thiem (5) from 7pm
Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) v Alexander Zverev (3) from 9.30pm
Stan Wawrinka v Rafael Nadal (2) from 11.30pm
Women's semi-finals
Belinda Bencic v Simona Halep (3) from 4.30pm
Sloane Stephens (8) v Kiki Bertens (7) from 10pm
The years Ramadan fell in May
Read more about the coronavirus
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
Schedule
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The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
The five pillars of Islam
