Mourinho accuses De Bruyne of a lack of patience during time at Chelsea
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 22 Jun 2021 16:08 BST
Jose Mourinho insists Kevin De Bruyne was not patient enough during his time at Chelsea and should have accepted not playing week in, week out at Stamford Bridge.
The Belgian star joined Chelsea in January of 2012 but would not make his debut for the club until the opening day of the 2013/14 season in a Premier League fixture against Hull.
Prior to that, De Bruyne spent a successful season out on loan at Werder Bremen and in was in pre-season for 2013/14 that Mourinho assured him he would be part of the senior squad moving forward.
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However, chances were hard to come by as he made just five starts under the Portuguese boss which led to a January 2014 transfer to Wolfsburg.
De Bruyne would ultimately return to the Premier League with Manchester City and since that move he has developed into one of the best midfielders in the world.
Mourinho has no regrets about letting De Bruyne leave, however.
“He impressed me so much that I made the decision; 'I don't want this kid to go out on loan, I want this kid to stay'" he told talkSPORT.
“He was supposed to go on loan and he wasn't happy to stay and grow up there. He by himself put a lot of pressure to leave.”
“He knew very well what he wanted. And he was not ready to have that season at Chelsea where lots of good players were in the same team.
“He didn't have that patience to work, to play, to not play, to be on the bench. He was not ready for that. He was coming from a season where he basically played every minute.
“He was not so happy to accept a situation like that at Chelsea. Sometimes we coaches, we make mistakes and we don't consider that this player has the potential in the future.
“But this was not the case. I saw the potential to do it - but he was just very clear on his mind and he knew perfectly what he wanted.”
Jose Mourinho never explained why I was rarely allowed to play - Kevin De Bruyne
- Mourinho on 'fun' with De Bruyne
Within the same interview with talkSPORT, Mourinho claimed that his time with De Bruyne at Chelsea was actually "fun", saying: “My story with Kevin was fun. It worked well in the end for him".
This is certainly in contrast to De Bruyne's version of events, however, as in 2015 he would outline to Sport Bild that he never got enough chances to impress at Stamford Bridge.
“I trained well. Jose Mourinho never explained why I was rarely allowed to play,”
“Maybe it would have all gone differently if Chelsea had paid €45m for me instead of €8m to Genk back in 2012.
"I would have had a different standing, and got more chances.”
