Burnley transfer spend dwarfs Sheffield United - but where is the Blades-level scrutiny on Vincent Kompany?

On Saturday afternoon, one manager will make the long walk from the Turf Moor tunnel and take his place in the dugout ahead of a seismic clash. He will feel the cold Lancashire air in his lungs, and weight on his shoulders.

For weeks and months – it may feel like months at this point – his position has been speculated about. National outlets and pundits, many without a modicum of understanding of what he has dealt with, have decried him and his team. The worst ever, they said. An embarrassment to the Premier League.

Paul Heckingbottom will then shake hands with his opposite number, Vincent Kompany. A man he did battle with twice last season; United winning 5-2 at Bramall Lane and starting brightly at Turf Moor, before an early Wes Foderingham red card gave them a mountain to climb against the eventual Championship winners.

United will kick off a point ahead of Burnley and two places higher. They have lost one game fewer, conceded one goal more. They have had – or endured – pretty similar seasons so far. The only real contrasts between them have been their summer overhauls – Burnley’s net spend of over £90m dwarfing United’s own £20m effort – and the differing scrutiny placed on their respective managers.

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Where has the ridicule been for Kompany, the questions – both to his face and behind his back – about whether he is up to the task? Heckingbottom has endured those almost weekly since the low point of United’s season so far, an 8-0 shellacking. Even in the green shoots of recovery, at home to Wolves and Brighton, some of United’s own fans were falling over themselves to insist those four points were in spite of Heckingbottom rather than because of him.

Over at Turf Moor, just over 40 miles to the northwest, the silence has seemed deafening. Seven straight defeats in all competitions, no points at home since promotion. Over £100m spent, 13 players brought in. Burnley even took one of United’s most influential players, Sander Berge, on the cheap and only recently have the same questions been raised about Kompany.

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“You know what? Maybe Burnley are the ones who are getting this right,” said Ian Ladyman on the latest episode of Mail Sport's It's All Kicking Off podcast this week. “Maybe they think: ‘We've got a plan here. We've got a manager who we like and who likes us. He plays a certain way, he's developing players. If we go down this season, we get a parachute payment that gives us an enormous chance of getting back up next season’.”

Sound familiar? Like Burnley, United have a plan. They appointed Heckingbottom with it in mind; to run the club sustainably, cut the wage bill and bring through academy players into the squad. Remember his unveiling press conference, when it was made clear he wouldn’t be judged on just results? They have come too, against a backdrop of successive chops to his transfer spend and wage budget. In football all that doesn’t matter in the eyes of some once you lose a few games. But if those are the harsh standards against which Heckingbottom is judged, they should apply to all – whether your playing career peaked in the Premier League or the Football League.