De Bruyne’s assessment on time at Chelsea under Mourinho

Kevin de Bruyne: Hails new forward

Kevin de Bruyne: Failed to impress Mourinho at Chelsea

Kevin De Bruyne has opened up on his time at Chelsea and his inability to catch Jose Mourinho’s eye while at Stamford Bridge.

The Belgium international has become one of the Premier League’s top players since a £55million switch to Manchester City in the summer of 2015 and featured prominently in our list of the Premier League’s top 10 No 10s.

Moving to Stamford Bridge in 2012 from Belgium side Genk, De Bruyne was then sent on loan to Werder Bremen and on his return it was expected he would play a prominent role in the first team.

However, he would feature only nine times, making just three Premier League appearances, before heading back to the Bundesliga, this time with Wolfsburg in 2014, where he would go onto be crowned Footballer of the Year in Germany for his stellar performances.

His form at City makes it even more a surprise that he was unable to impress Mourinho at Stamford Bridge and the now-Manchester United manager’s assessment of the player was criticised in this article, where it was said the Belgian’s billiance exposed the Portuguese coach’s flaws.

However, De Bruyne insists he has doesn’t care about Mourinho’s opinion of him and has credited Pep Guardiola with helping him take his game to another level.

“I’ve no idea and I don’t care [why he never won over Mourinho]. I waited four months, then I said to myself that wanted to play football every week,” he told FourFourTwo.

“I couldn’t get the game time I wanted, so leaving was the obvious choice.

Kevin De Bruyne: Given few opportunities at Chelsea

“I wanted to start a new chapter – not be loaned out and come back to the exact same situation. It was a really smart move on my part. But of all the choices I have made in my career, I don’t regret one of them – even going to Chelsea. It didn’t work out. I wanted to play football; I didn’t; so I left.”

Speaking about the former Barcelona boss who took charge this summer, De Bruyne said: “It’s not like he [Guardiola] has changed a lot – football is still football – but it’s his eye for detail that counts.”

De Bruyne underlined his importance to City and his brilliant form under Guardiola with this brilliant free-kick against Barcelona on Tuesday night.