Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that he let Kevin De Bruyne join Wolfsburg for £18 million as he was constantly asking to leave, reports the Daily Express.
The 24-year-old is now a target for Manchester City, who have been linked wit an offer of around £50 million [Bild via Daily Express]. They are apparently also willing to offer the Belgium international £7 million-a-year at the Etihad Stadium, making the Blues’ decision to let the midfielder go less than to years ago look like a major mistake.
“With De Bruyne, if you have a player knocking on your door and crying every day he wants to leave, you have to make a decision,” said Mourinho, “At that time, Chelsea did well. If De Bruyne stayed here, not happy and not motivated, and we’d sold him after a year, we’d have got less — 50 percent less than what we sold him for. So we sold him. At that moment, it was very good business.
“If somebody comes and pays for him what somebody would pay for [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano [Ronaldo], it looks from the eyes of the world that it’s bad business from us. But, if he was at Chelsea and not at Wolfsburg, he wouldn’t have reached this level. It was like a wall, a block. He was not ready to compete. He was an upset kid, training very bad.
“He always said he had trained well in his life, but he needs motivation to train well by playing every game. Andre Schurrle was a bit the same.”
Last season De Bruyne managed 10 goals and 20 assists in 34 Bundesliga matches, which was among the best returns in Europe. He could add yet more creativity to a Sky Blues front line that already contains David Silva and Raheem Sterling.
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That the former Stamford Bridge man could now strengthen their direct rivals will be especially galling after the team made a poor start to the season. They drew to Swansea City on the opening day of the season, before losing to the Citizens last weekend. They will have to pick up their results soon to avoid being left behind by their competitors for the Premier League title.