The roller-coaster coaching career of Vincent Kompany took its biggest twist yet over the summer when mighty German side Bayern Munich came calling with a surprise swoop for the Belgian.
Kompany had just overseen Burnley's relegation from the English Premier League with the club finishing second bottom, eight points from safety, having managed just five wins all season.
It was a disastrous campaign riddled with defensive mistakes and missed opportunities at the other end of the pitch that resulted in a young and inexperienced side making an instant return to the Championship.
In 2022/23, Kompany led Burnley to the second-tier title in his first season in charge, breaking the 100-point barrier playing an exciting brand of attacking football, a philosophy that he refused to compromise in the top flight, which would ultimately lead to their downfall.
The team's defensive frailties were particularly exposed against the leading sides; the Clarets lost all 12 games against the division’s top six. “I'm not here sulking and feeling sorry for us but if you take every game, every season as a learning experience, this is a step we need to get into our game,” Kompany said after their final game.
“Today the Premier League is over but tomorrow we start day one of doing everything we can to get back to the Premier League.”
Yet within a few weeks, Kompany was gone. The 38 year old signed a three-year deal to replace Thomas Tuchel at Bayern after the two clubs agreed a compensation package reported to be around £10 million.
“Vincent is the type of coach who fits in very well with FC Bayern's playing philosophy and identity,” said Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund after the appointment. “His teams want the ball, and want to play dominant and high-intensity football.”
Kompany was no stranger to the Bundesliga having spent two years playing for Hamburg before moving to Manchester City in 2008, where the defender was the captain and heartbeat of a team that became the dominant force in English football.
After leaving City, his first coaching role saw him take over at boyhood club Anderlecht – first as a player-coach before retiring to focus solely on management in a spell that saw the Belgian club finish eighth, fourth and third – before returning to England with Burnley.
Now he was joining a very different beast in the six-time European champions who had just seen their run of 11 consecutive titles brought to an end by Xabi Alonso's invincibles at Bayer Leverkusen and finished trophyless for the first time since 2012.
Alonso had turned down the Bayern job – Hansi Flick, Ralf Rangnick and Zinedine Zidane were others – during a farcical search that finally ended in the unlikely choice of Kompany.
“I grew up on the streets of Brussels, in Anderlecht’s academy. You have to be a team, I want my players to have courage, I want us to be aggressive,” Kompany said at his unveiling. “I want us to play like that, that's also my character. We want to keep that up for entire games.”
Striker Harry Kane, speaking after Bayern's 4-0 German Cup win over second-division Ulm in their opening match, said his first impressions of Kompany had been “really good”.
“I like him a lot. He has brought in a good fresh energy,” said the England captain, who scored 44 goals in his debut season at Bayern. “The way he wants to play with a lot of possession and high pressure, a lot of attacks to try to score many goals … that really suits us. I believe that we will understand his ideas better week by week and improve steadily.”
That understanding seems to be growing; Bayern are top of the table having won four out of four, scoring 16 goals, as well thrashing Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 in the Uefa Champions League.
“If you play against Bayern, it has to represent an almost impossible mission,” Kompany said in an interview with Uefa.com before the Zagreb game. “I'm not saying it’s going to happen straight away, I’m not saying that’s where we are right now, but when I played against the very best Bayern teams, they could give you that feeling.
“For us, it’s the goal to come back as quickly as possible to give that feeling to many opponents.”
And it has been an impossible mission for opponents in their last three matches that have seen Bayern come out on top 20-3 on aggregate.
Kane has continued where he left off last season with 10 goals in six games, including four against Zagreb that took him to 33 in the Champions League making him the highest-scoring Englishman in Europe’s premier competition.
Michael Olise, signed in the summer from Crystal Palace, has hit the ground running with three goals and two assists, including a man-of-the-match display in Saturday’s 5-0 win at Werder Bremen that saw Kompany hail the 22-year-old winger as a “special talent”.
Such is the strength in depth of Bayern's squad, the likes of Joao Palhinha, Leroy Sane, Thomas Muller and Serge Gnabry all appeared off the bench in the second half.
Next up will be Kompany's first big test as manager when Bayern face double-winning Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena on Saturday evening.
But any idea that Bayern will be forced on to the back foot when taking on Alonso’s side – who are second in the table – has already been dismissed by Kompany.
“When I played against the top Bayern teams in the past, I didn’t have the impression that they were pressured by the opponent,” he insisted. “They were always the ones to put the pressure and were good on the ball. We’ll see whether we’ll manage to do that.”
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The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Director: Jon Watts
Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon
Rating:*****
HAJJAN
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The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
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How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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SPECS
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
MATCH INFO
Real Madrid 2 (Benzema 13', Kroos 28')
Barcelona 1 (Mingueza 60')
Red card: Casemiro (Real Madrid)
if you go
The flights
Flydubai flies to Podgorica or nearby Tivat via Sarajevo from Dh2,155 return including taxes. Turkish Airlines flies from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Podgorica via Istanbul; alternatively, fly with Flydubai from Dubai to Belgrade and take a short flight with Montenegro Air to Podgorica. Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Podgorica via Belgrade. Flights cost from about Dh3,000 return including taxes. There are buses from Podgorica to Plav.
The tour
While you can apply for a permit for the route yourself, it’s best to travel with an agency that will arrange it for you. These include Zbulo in Albania (www.zbulo.org) or Zalaz in Montenegro (www.zalaz.me).
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Super heroes
Iron Man
Reduced risk of dementia
Alcohol consumption could be an issue
Hulk
Cardiac disease, stroke and dementia from high heart rate
Spider-Man
Agility reduces risk of falls
Increased risk of obesity and mental health issues
Black Panther
Vegetarian diet reduces obesity
Unknown risks of potion drinking
Black Widow
Childhood traumas increase risk of mental illnesses
Thor
He's a god
How it works
Booklava works on a subscription model. On signing up you receive a free book as part of a 30-day-trial period, after which you pay US$9.99 (Dh36.70) per month to gain access to a library of books and discounts of up to 30 per cent on selected titles. You can cancel your subscription at any time. For more details go to www.booklava.com
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
Results
4pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Dirt); 1,400m
Winner: Solar Shower; William Lee (jockey); Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
4.35pm: Handicap; Dh165,000 (D); 2,000m
Winner: Thaaqib; Antonio Fresu; Erwan Charpy.
5.10pm: Maiden; Dh165,000 (Turf); 1,800m
Winner: Bila Shak; Adrie de Vries; Fawzi Nass
5.45pm: Handicap; Dh175,000 (D); 1,200m
Winner: Beachcomber Bay; Richard Mullen; Satish Seemar
6.20pm: Handicap; Dh205,000 (T); 1,800m
Winner: Muzdawaj; Jim Crowley; Musabah Al Muhairi
6.55pm: Handicap; Dh185,000 (D); 1,600m
Winner: Mazeed; Tadhg O’Shea; Satish Seemar
7.30pm: Handicap; Dh205,000 (T); 1,200m
Winner: Riflescope; Tadhg O’Shea; Satish Seemar.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
