There was a big difference in opinion between the Portuguese manager and the Belgian playmaker, which led to his departure from Chelsea.
Kevin De Bruyne has made stunning progress since leaving the London based club in 2014, emerging as Bundesliga’s best player which eventually earned him a £54 million move back to England. At Manchester City, the play-maker has continued his rich form, scoring 18 goals and making 20 assists in his one and a half season with the club.
The Belgian, in an open and engaging conversation with the Daily Mail, has touched upon various topics like Pep Guardiola, the club’s recent trend of poor results, Claudio Bravo and of course, his time at Chelsea under manager Jose Mourinho.
Till now, we only knew one side about the De Bruyne-Jose Mourinho episode, with the Portuguese manager claiming De Bruyne wasn’t willing to fight for a spot in the XI and trained poorly when he didn’t start.
However, De Bruyne has quashed the notion that he had a weak mentality, stating Chelsea, or rather Jose Mourinho, had difference of opinions with him, which ultimately gave the midfielder an impression that the manager didn’t feel he was good enough for the club at that point of time.
“I think Chelsea had a different view than I had of myself. I was young but also experienced. I had already many, many games under my belt. I didn’t feel I was like a normal 20-year-old because I had already played for years in Belgium and then on loan from Chelsea in Germany. As far as I was concerned, I was ready to play but for them I was too young.”
“I think Eden Hazard was the same age as me when he played so it’s a little bit strange to say this guy is young and the other guy is old enough to play. It’s just another way of saying that somebody isn’t good enough.”
De Bruyne also added he took that incident in his stride and has only learned from the experience, claiming he has no problems with Jose Mourinho.
Whatever views Jose Mourinho had for Kevin De Bruyne at Chelsea, he now must be relieved to hear the midfielder won’t be playing any part, due to a knock, in the latest derby scheduled to take place this midweek. After-all, De Bruyne was the tormentor-in-chief at Old Trafford in the last Manchester Derby that took place in early September.
