Kyle Walker on Burnley's season so far, what survival would mean and son's academy progress

The 35-year-old has enjoyed a noticeable impact since arriving in East Lancashire following his £5m summer move from Manchester City.

During his time at the Etihad, the full-back won 18 major trophies. But now his focus is very much at the other end of the spectrum, but that’s not to say he’s enjoying it any less.

For the first time since making the move to Turf Moor, Walker has sat down with the local media for an in-depth chat, covering a wide range of topics: from why he joined Burnley, his thoughts on the season so far, and his son Roman, who plays in the club’s Under-14 academy side.

Here’s what he had to say:

Have you been surprised by what you’ve seen at Burnley?

“It's not really a surprise for me because I'm new coming in here, so what I see is what I kind of get.

“With the quality of the players and everything like that, they're very, very good players.

“It's fine details and learning that comes with age and maturity in playing the Premier League season and season out.

“I think if the players don't know now, they will know that it's a cut-throat game. There are a couple of chances that you can give, a couple of lapses of concentration here and there, but normally, nine times out of 10, these teams are going to punish you.

“I think that's what we need to probably take on to teams, that when we do get the chance on goal, we do create an opportunity. We need to make sure that we make the goalkeeper work or put it in the back of the net.

“All of our goals seem to be worldies, you know, that you kind of don't expect to score, but either Flem [Zian Flemming] pulls it down from somewhere, Lesley's [Ugochukwu] got a great header from the cross that I put in, and Loum's {Tchaouna] put one in the top corner.

“Maybe we could do with a couple more, I'm going to say, not great goals. Of course I like the great goals, don’t get me wrong, but a couple of not-so-great goals would put us in a much better stead.”

Why did you want the challenge of a relegation scrap?

“It's the challenge I wanted. I've said that very clearly at the start.

“Could I have gone to, you would say, a mid-table Premier League team? Of course, yes. But it wouldn't have floated my boat.

“I like to be challenging for things. I like to set a challenge in front of me and I like to attack it.

“This is definitely one that will probably match winning the Premier League in different ways, because everyone expects or predicts Burnley to go down, and just to prove people wrong by the end of the season will mean a lot to me, and I'm sure especially to Burnley FC and the lads that have been working hard all season long.”

Where would keeping Burnley up rate in your career?

“I think it would be right up there.

“People might look at me and say: “okay, you're stupid for saying that Kyle”, but I was very fortunate to win six Premier Leagues.

“Will it match the Champions League? Of course not. But would it match the third Premier League or something like that? Possibly. It's on par and it's on par for different reasons.

“I will never give you a Premier League and say: “okay, there's it back”, because I feel that not just me, but the lads earned that right to lift that Premier League trophy come the end of the season.

“But when people are doubting you so much, and we're going to say a little town like Burnley where people are expecting you to go down, if we then survive this, which I think that we truly can, it's going to be a great achievement.

“Maybe I might make a trophy and buy the lads one. I might actually make a trophy and present the lads all with one.”

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How does competing for survival compare to challenging for titles?

“There's differences, but let's address it back to the basics. There's two goals in football with 22 men on the pitch.

“You score more than your opponent, you win the game. Football is complicated by the people on the pitch and tactics and this, that and the other. It's like a chess game now.

“It's about working out your opponent and predicting their next move. Some things come off the cuff.

“For me, it's just about trying to get my experience over to the lads and we stay in the game as long as possible. It's never over.

“I've been in a lot of games where we've won the Premier League and we're 2-0 down against Aston Villa and then all of a sudden we go and score three goals and no one would ever, ever think that was going to happen on that day. But anything can happen in football.

“It's about staying in the game as long as possible. Showing that mentality, a stern mentality that no matter what happens in this game, we're not going to break and we're going to go until the end because we can pick up anything.”

You’re still loving it, aren’t you? The hunger is clearly still there?

“I'm trying to when my legs can go there! But I still feel fit, I really do.

“When people say to me: “okay, you're 35 and this, that and the other”, I think my outputs, my stats, my sprints that I'm doing on the field are still, I think, the highest in the team.

“It's a credit to myself and a credit to my mum and dad, which I've said numerous times, for the genetics, but I love playing football.

“I've always remembered Nick Montgomery at Sheffield United once said to me: “if you don't know what you're doing, just run around and something will happen” and I think I've always took that on.”

Are you surprising yourself?

“Honestly, yeah. Honestly, at 35, did I still think that I would be in the Premier League? No, definitely not.

“Did I think I'd be a Premier League footballer when I was 17? Definitely not. But I think that's the self-challenges that I give to myself just to keep going.

“I mean, you look at the likes of me and Jordan Henderson who we’re coming up against at the weekend.

“We're both at the same age, we've played against each other at Sheffield United and Sunderland and we're still playing in the Premier League, so it can be done.

“I think with the modern day, the technology, the nutrition and everything, the lads getting supplied to them now, I think players are going to go for a lot longer now.”

How is your son getting on in the academy? Can fans expect to see him in the first-team in a few years?

“Who knows? In football with that age, it's very tough to predict.

“I was one that was going to get released and I'm sat next to you at 35 years of age and I'm still going, so anything can happen.

“I put no pressure on him. I always tell him, you play the game because you love the game. You play the game because you enjoy the game and whatever will be, will be. I'll support him throughout whatever he does.”

What sort of player is he?

“He reminds me a little bit of me, although probably not as quick.

“I'm trying to bulk him up, to be fair, because I was probably 40kg through at his age. I'm trying to give him cereal at night and he doesn't want it. I'm giving him protein powder and all this and I'm saying: “come on, that's me and you getting in the gym”.

“But listen, I promise you there's no pressure on him from me. I think football is the best job in the world, but there are a lot of downsides with it as well, so it’s whatever he wants to do.

“If he told me tomorrow he wanted to go and play golf, we'd go and attack that. It's just as long as they're happy, that's all that I'm bothered about.”

Do you still keep in touch with Vincent Kompany?

“He messages me randomly. I will call him Vinny, whereas a lot of people here call him gaffer, but I'll call him Vinny because that's what I've known him as.

“He messages me randomly. I've seen him probably a month ago, it was his wife's birthday party. I won't say how old she was, but it was his wife's birthday party which we all met and it's good to see him.

“Obviously it was a little bit of a disappointing result for him [against Arsenal] after going on such a good run since the start of the season, but he'll learn from that.

“You know what he was like as a person and as a manager, he’s very thorough in detail and he'll go back to the drawing board and see where he can improve on, so it's like that.”

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