Mourinho was right to let De Bruyne leave Chelsea – Lampard

Kevin De Bruyne: Accused of having a poor workrate at Chelsea

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard has backed Jose Mourinho’s decision to allow Kevin De Bruyne to leave the club  in 2014.

The Belgium midfielder was sold to Wolfsburg for just £18million in January 2014 after failing to get sufficient game for the Blues under Mourinho.

He flourished in the Bundesliga and Manchester City were forced to pay a club record £55million to bring him back to the Premier League just 18 months later.

The Belgian playmaker came back to haunt his former team on Saturday as City inflicted a 1-0 home defeat on the reigning Premier League champions.

But while Mourinho has often been criticised for selling De Bruyne, Lampard leapt to the defence of his former manager.

“It was a difficult time for the club, you had (Eden) Hazard, Oscar, and Willian had just signed,” Lampard told BT Sport.

“He wasn’t as good as he is now. Of course, it’s easy to look and say ‘why did you let him go?’, but he’s gone away and made himself a world-class player.”