Even in Vincent Kompany's long and varied career, Monday night's game against Everton will be a first, leading his Manchester City team-mates through a one-way glass tunnel in which supporters dining behind the screen can watch their every move, but the players can't see them.

'Maybe tunnel bust-ups will stop, maybe they won't,' he says with a twinkle in his eye.

'Football is always going to be about emotions, and now the more you show, the more people will see it. It'll make it more interesting to be in the Tunnel Club I guess.

Vincent Kompany will lead out Manchester City in a new era at the Etihad Stadium

City will walk down a new one-way glass tunnel onto the pitch to face Everton

'Personally, I embrace it. I'm not afraid of it. This will always be a football stadium first and foremost but you have to live with the times.

'This adds an experience for everyone and we as players should be able to deal with being seen. We're used to having more cameras around anywhere we go.'

The tunnel is not the only new innovation being rolled out at the Etihad. The new dressing room area is circular, spacious and open plan, a million miles away from the traditional spit and sawdust changing room where the manager would slam the door shut and deliver home truths.

At 31, Kompany is hardly at the veteran stage yet, but as City's captain and longest-serving player, the dawning of a new era does make him reflect on the changes he's seen in his nine years at the club, signing a week before the club were bought by Abu Dhabi's Sheik Mansour.

Supporters dining behind the screen can watch their every move ahead of the game

Kompany lunges in to take the ball of Brighton striker Tomer Hemed during the opening game

'I've so many dressing-room memories. In my first season, the Brazilians Robinho and Elano would do keepy-ups with their socks, making the rest of us feel like amateurs.

'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.

The Belgian defender applauds the travelling fans after the final whistle of the 2-0 win

'They could be funny ones made by the kitman Chappy to ease the tension, or emotional, seeing how other people had overcome much bigger struggles.

'Normally it feels like a desperate thing for the manager to do, right? But it works. It increases that togetherness. If you have to face a giant, which some teams were to City then, you face it without fear.

'And of course we had massive arguments in there, which I take as a positive. Those rows at half-time and then 45 minutes later you've won the game and everyone is hugging and embracing.'

Some of the core of the two title-winning teams that Kompany has captained are still there; David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure.

But there is a younger generation that Pep Guardiola is counting on as well: Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling, John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne.

Kompany lifts aloft the Premier League trophy for a second time after City's 2014 triumph

With Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta playing at West Ham, Kompany is the last of the 'Three Amigos' still entrusted with being a custodian of City's heritage.

'We're grown up. It is football, nothing lasts forever,' he says. 'It is more a case of me trying to pass things on about the club and why players like Joe and Zaba were heroes.

'When I came to City there was a gap in the dressing room as regards passing on the baton, as you say. There was not a lot then — Dunny [Richard Dunne] was maybe the only one.

'It was the staff and people around who would tell you about Shaun Goater and Paul Dickov, what they did for the club. But it is more powerful when it comes from the current players. I like to go into the academy, meet people, see what's going on.

Kompany missed 22 games last year due to injury before ending the season strongly

A WINDOW INTO ANOTHER WORLD Manchester City's new Tunnel Club launched for the game against Everton on Monday night is described by the club as the 'the most immersive experience available in world football today'. Season-ticket members will pay between £7,500 and £15,000 to dine next to a double-sided glass tunnel where they will get a bird's eye view of Sergio Aguero and other City stars as they enter and leave the pitch. They will also get a tactical briefing from a member of Pep Guardiola's analysis department and can watch the players conduct post-match interviews, though the players won't be able to see them. It's a model based on NFL franchise The Dallas Cowboys and seats will also be available on a match-by-match basis. It will also be the first time City players will use their new stare-of-the-art dressing-room. Circular in shape, it is designed to avoid players splitting into groups or missing out on Pep Guardiola's words of wisdom. Other new facilities in the space-age open-plan dressing-room area include new hydrotherapy and ice baths and giant communal showers. All fans can also see the City players get off the team coach before kick off and walk down the blue carpet. Advertisement

'So even before the young players get to the first-team squad, they already know me. As much as change is happening at a club, it's just good to remember and to always take into account what makes the people get out of the seats when you come here.'

Entertainment and three points are what City fans will expect against Everton after Guardiola's team made an impressive start with a win at Brighton.

The presence of Wayne Rooney in an Everton shirt will add spice and Kompany has his own reasons for trying to keep the former United man quiet. Rooney scored one of the greatest goals in the Premier League's 25 years when his overhead kick helped beat City in 2011.

'That goal was a testimony to his talent because in that game I had him in my pocket!' says Kompany.

'But top strikers do things at unbelievable times. I was really strong for 90 minutes and then he pulls the overhead kick and I'm thinking 'Oh, come on…'

'I still think he's got this ability, the winning goal he scored for Everton against Stoke last weekend showed it — he recognised when he needed to get in the box.'

City are heavily fancied this season. 'We've worked really hard to get this way of controlling games and strangling the opposition. Nothing is left to luck or chance,' Kompany says.

'It's the first time in my career I've worked so hard on a gameplan. Second season, we have a few new players to integrate but overall there's less to teach, it feels more natural.

Kompany takes to the training field ahead of the visit of Everton on Monday night

Kompany looks to pinch the ball during an exercise at the club's Football Academy

'In today's football, you need to have a very clear idea of what you are trying to achieve, like Chelsea did last season. So, yes, we are excited but if you go across the street to United, they probably feel the same way.

'We've won it twice and I feel if you put everything into perspective it's an incredible achievement because we had to catch up on 25 years of dominance by another team, not just football but financial dominance.

'It's not about saying "You could have won eight league titles". It is that we had to scramble and fight together to get that first one and then we got a second one to confirm things. And since then we've been in the mix.'

In a season of sagas involving a dozen players from Philippe Coutinho to Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa — none of whom played on the opening weekend — Kompany is held up as a beacon of virtue.

It is a status he is reluctant to accept because he knows the reality of modern football.

Kompany looks to rake the ball upfield during the opening day win at the Amex Stadium

The veteran centre back acrobatically attempts to control the ball on the stretch

'Loyalty 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.'

As for his injury problems, Kompany said he never felt in despair. He suffered three separate leg, groin and calf injuries last season that caused him to miss 22 games before ending the campaign strongly.

Kompany is put under pressure by Brighton's Pascal Grob during the win at Brighton

Kompany applauds the fans alongside defensive partners John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi

'I'm a rational person and I needed to be calm. There are a couple of guys at the academy who have had some bad injuries, cruciates, and I've said to them that you only realise when you're injured that you can actually improve as a footballer.

'I tried to look at what other guys were doing better than me and how I could do that myself.'

Kompany is an unusual footballer, a leader and a statesman but modest with it. Perhaps it is his family background.

His father fled the Congo amid violent turmoil and is now involved in Brussels politics and mum was involved in unions.

The boy from Belgium has come to represent Manchester City as much as Colin Bell or Dickov. There is no glass ceiling for the man at the front of the glass tunnel.

Vincent Kompany was speaking at the launch of The Tunnel Club, Manchester City's new hospitality experience that wraps around the first glass players' tunnel in world football.

For more information, visitmancity.com/thetunnelclub