‘What did Chelsea not see in De Bruyne?’

Kevin de Bruyne: Scored Man City's winner

Kevin de Bruyne: Scored Man City's winner

Former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino has lambasted the Blues for allowing Kevin de Bruyne to slip through the Stamford Bridge net.

Man City match-winner De Bruyne fired Manuel Pellegrini’s men into the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday night and Cascarino cannot understand how the 24-year-old was allowed to leave Chelsea.

De Bruyne signed for Chelsea in January 2012 for £6.7million from Genk, but he only made nine first-team appearances and was loaned to Werder Bremen for the whole of the 2012/13 season before being sold to Wolfsburg for £18million in January 2014.

De Bruyne’s career took off in the Bundesliga though and he notched 20 goals and 37 assists in just 73 games for the German club.

That form earned the Belgium international a return to the Premier League last summer when City paid £55million for the attacking midfielder, who has scored 15 goals for City this season and provided nine assists.

Cascarino wrote in The Times: “What did Chelsea not see in Kevin de Bruyne?

“I can’t understand how they and Jose Mourinho decided to let him go.

“He may not have played that many games for them but surely he showed his potential in training every day?

“Top clubs these days have a wealth of coaches to spot talent and this lad has the lot.

“I think he is probably the most gifted young player in Europe when it comes to using either foot.

“His goal was superb but some of his incisive passing was fantastic.

“One first-half pass in particular finding David Silva and splitting the Paris Saint-Germain defence —was one that only a few players could pull off.

“I don’t know how Chelsea couldn’t see his potential.”