Man City Skipper Vincent Kompany Reveals the Differences Between English and German Dressing Rooms

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has highlighted some of the major differences between football dressing rooms in England and Germany.

The 31-year-old has overseen a lot of change at the Etihad since the club were taken over by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, and City's home is certainly looking a lot different these days.

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Kompany can recall his time at Bundesliga side Hamburg though, and it sounds completely different from the environment he inhabits now, but perhaps exactly how one might imagine.

He said as quoted by the Mail: "I've so many dressing-room memories. In my first season [at City], the Brazilians Robinho and Elano would do keepy-ups with their socks, making the rest of us feel like amateurs.

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"All you could do is shrug your shoulders and go 'Oh well, I'll just do some push-ups!'. The noise was also something that was a shock coming from Hamburg in German football where everything was very serious.

"In Germany, I'd read a book to help relax, which I thought was pretty sensible, but even then the gaffer would say 'What are you doing, you're meant to be focusing on the game!'

"Then I come to England, it's all noise and pranks and banter. Mark Hughes liked to put on inspirational videos sometimes."

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The Belgian leader also spoke a bit about loyalty in the game, or lack thereof, adding: "It is a difficult topic in football. Everybody wants to have it but in reality managers are thinking 'If I can find a better player, you're out', and players are thinking 'If I can find a club that wins more games, I'm out'.

"I've been lucky enough to be at a club that has grown as my career has developed. But sometimes you have managers and directors that make decisions, and if you don't fit the plans you can love the club as much as you want but you might have to move on."