Vincent Kompany: Chelsea were handed EPL title on a plate

Damien Spellman 09:29 08/07/2015
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  • Kompany man: The City defender is back in training.

    Skipper Vincent Kompany has admitted Manchester City made it too easy for Chelsea to claim the Premier League title last season.

    The Blues enjoyed a relative stroll to glory as they finished eight points ahead of nearest rivals City at the top of the table.

    As they returned for pre-season yesterday, Kompany and his team-mates had not forgotten the ease with which Chelsea de-throned them, and work to ensure there is no repeat this time around is now starting in earnest.

    The Belgium international said: “It was a disappointment for City, it was a disappointment for every single player at the club.

    “Obviously Kun and Joe Hart got some rewards, which still gave us a good feeling as well, but it shows what the club wants to achieve because we finished second, so there’s a lot of other clubs behind us still. But Chelsea kind of ran away with it and it was too early, too easy, and we can’t afford that any more.

    “We have been competitive for the past four or five years now, so that won’t change. But we lost the league last year – and it happens. You can’t win every single year, the same as Chelsea two years ago – they didn’t win the league, we did.

    “But you want it to be a tight race and whenever we won it, it was always a tight race, so we’d like to be in there at least to the end, and if we have a really good season, we can maybe change the roles a little bit and just get to the end in a confident manner.”

    With the summer transfer market now in full swing, City, like their competitors, will be hoping to make key additions to strengthen a squad already packed with talent.

    They have been persistently linked with Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling, Juventus’ Paul Pogba and Wolfsburg’s Kevin de Bruyne among others, and while Kompany is confident they will reinforce Manuel Pellegrini’s armoury, he knows competition will be stiff.

    Asked about the transfer market, he said: “It’s the key to the success of any top club.

    “It’s maybe not always the amount of players that come, but I think that every top club in the world will be looking to add maybe two or three quality players to make the team just that little bit stronger, and if you don’t do it, then you are exposed to other teams becoming stronger.

    “It’s just nothing more than usual for us in the transfer window, and I’m hoping and confident that we will make the right signings.

    “I’m not too much into the specifics, but there are not so many top players and there are a few clubs who will probably be after the same players.

    “I think we have an attractive proposition here – we obviously have the facilities, we have the increased capacity of the stadium and everything we want to achieve in the future. But some clubs have got the history.

    “Players choose different things at times. You just can’t guess.”

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