Kompany’s joy for long-suffering staff

VINCENT KOMPANY only had to look at the faces of Manchester City’s long-serving members of staff at Wembley on Saturday to understand exactly what a place in the FA Cup final means.

It is a measure of the transformation City have undergone since Sheikh Mansour completed his multi-million pound Blues buy-out in 2008 than Kompany has been at Eastlands for a greater period than any other outfield player in the starting line-up that overcame Manchester United.

Yet, with under three years’ service behind him, Kompany needed the experience of others to encapsulate exactly what City have achieved by ending their 30-year wait for a major final appearance.