Josh Cullen: 'He must have lost my number at the minute. It’s a massive club and I wish him well there'

Josh Cullen bears no grudge against Vincent Kompany for his decision to flee, insistent Bayern will flourish from recruiting one of Pep Guardiola’s disciples.

WISHES HIM WELL: Josh Cullen bears no grudge against Vincent Kompany for his decision to flee, insistent Bayern will flourish from recruiting one of Pep Guardiola’s disciples. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Josh Cullen followed Vincent Kompany from Anderlecht to Burnley but doesn’t expect the reunions to continue at Bayern Munich.

The Ireland midfielder had the mixed fortune of promotion from the Premier League and relegation back to the Championship over his two seasons under the Belgian at Turf Moor but Kompany was recently headhunted by the German giants.

Cullen bears no grudge against Kompany for his decision to flee, insistent Bayern will flourish from recruiting one of Pep Guardiola’s disciples. Komany ended his playing career at Manchester City in 2019 to pursue his coaching ambitions with Anderlecht, making Cullen one of his first captures.

“Yeah, I’m just waiting for the phone to ring,” joked the newly married Cullen when asked about Ireland’s pre-match conference about rekindling his globetrotting to Germany.

“He must have lost my number at the minute. It’s a massive club and I wish him well there.” 

“I think his tactical knowledge of the game is outstanding. His game-plan depending on what opposition you come up against is always very clear and if you can deliver the message that he puts across to his team then you have a great chance of winning the game.

“So I’m sure they’ve done their homework and watched a lot of games.

“He’s come from the sort of school of Pep as well. It seems a lot of managers are getting jobs coming from how well he has done in the game and sharing similar ideas.” 

Once this international window concludes, and Cullen enjoys his delayed honeymoon, he’ll be returning to a new club boss. Burnley have yet to appoint Kompany’s replacement.

He said: “I’ve no information to give on anything behind the scenes but we need to come back as a group in pre-season and hopefully have a successful season.

“Last season didn’t go as we wanted but it was always an ambition of mine to play at the highest level in club football - and the Premier League is certainly that.

“To make a decent amount of appearances across the season and come back from a bit of a difficult time in the middle when I wasn’t playing and finish the season fairly strongly was good.”