Kompany steps down from Anderlecht amid Burnley interest

There had been reports of friction between the manager and the Anderlecht hierarchy after owner Marc Coucke posted on Instagram in April ‘How to kill an entire season in 1 week’ following a poor start to the play-offs, and defeat in the Belgian Cup final to Gent.

As a player, Kompany spent 11 years at the Etihad, making 360 appearances and scoring 20 goals – including a potentially title-winning strike against Leicester City in 2019, which helped the club lift the last of the four Premier League titles they earned during his stay.

Jackson had refused to be drawn on whether he wanted to continue in his caretaker role full-time when he spoke to reporters last week, ahead of that final-day defeat to Newcastle which confirmed their relegation.

He said: “I’ve just not thought about [the job] at all. All my thoughts have been how can we achieve what we want to do.

“We’ve not spoken about it. We’ve not had time to even think about that. My full focus has been on trying to achieve this.

“Let’s see what happens on Monday morning. Fingers crossed everything goes how we want, then we’ll have a good Monday.”