Kevin De Bruyne has recently spoken about his experience working with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. De Bruyne stated that he doesn’t have any hatred towards the Portuguese coach despite only making three Premier League appearances during the 2013-14 season under his management.
Since then, De Bruyne has established himself as one of the best players in European football. As quoted by Het Nieuwsblad, De Bruyne said: “They [Chelsea] really wanted to keep me and give me a chance but I actually wanted to go to Dortmund [but that move didn’t materialise].”
“I had a good feeling about that – and I always decide by feeling. I did play a bit at Chelsea, but away at Swindon in the cup… that was really dramatic.I hadn’t played for a month and then you have to play against a League 2 club like that. After that, it was over.”
Discussing his relationship with Mourinho, the player added: “I never went to Jose Mourinho. I trained hard; I showed enough. But it’s a football myth that if you train well, you get chance. That is not true. I left it hanging a bit because I didn’t see a chance to play anymore, but then I learned to behave differently sometimes.”
Mourinho, who went on to manage Manchester United, Tottenham and current side Roma, revealed his side to the story: “He impressed me so much I made the decision I don’t want this kid to go on loan, I want him to stay.”
“And in our first match of the Premier League season he started against Hull City. In the second match we got to Old Trafford and after this he come to me and said, ‘I want to play every match, I want to play every minute’. He put a lot of pressure on that.”
“He wanted to leave, he wanted to go to Germany where he was previously on loan [at Werder Bremen] and so happy, and his decision was to go. He put big pressure on that and it worked very well for him. The story is there and the quality of the player is absolute, he is top five in the world.”
