![By Anish Morarji from St Albans, England (Emirates Cup - Arsenal v Wolfsburg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/a82340295dd60f701195de9c99ba7d1537559618e85cb793626f3cdeffa13087.jpg "By Anish Morarji from St Albans, England (Emirates Cup - Arsenal v Wolfsburg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
Manchester City winger Kevin De Bruyne has been doing a lot of talking about how things went wrong for him at Chelsea FC. The Belgian was sold off to Wolfsburg in January 2014 after making only nine appearances for the Blues and failing to impress in his short time. In that brief spell at the club, including just five months with Jose Mourinho, De Bruyne claims he only spoke to the manager twice.
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De Bruyne is obviously referring to having a one-on-one chat with the manager, which one can imagine does happen from time to time. Managers would likely single out a player to speak to alone if they were in need of some praise or a stern talking-to.
The most famous story of such a conversation involving Mourinho was when he cornered Frank Lampard in the shower and told him he was the best player in the world. In De Bruyne’s case it was a little bit of both praise and critique in each of his conversations with the manager.
Kevin De Bruyne told Sky Sports about his limited interactions with Mourinho:
"“I only talked with him twice, Mourinho. One was before a game against Basel, where he said I was doing better in his opinion and that I would get my chance. I think that was maybe November. Then one week before January, that’s when I said I wanted to go because even if I was training better, I was not getting any minutes.”“I’m not somebody who talks a lot with the coach. I didn’t do it in Wolfsburg and I didn’t do it at my other teams. I’m not the most open player, I’m not the biggest clown. I just try to do my thing. Of course, you want to know sometimes what he thinks or what he thinks you need to do.”“You don’t know what you are doing wrong. That was maybe the biggest part that went wrong. I didn’t get any explanation. I just needed to go so that things could be better for me personally. I don’t regret it. I just wanted to go at that at time, either a sale or a loan.”"
Many Chelsea FC fans believe that it was arrogance that got De Bruyne sent away from the club. That he was too full of himself to truly fight for a spot and he could not stomach the idea that he was forced to earn his place in the team rather than it just being handed to him.
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These more recent quotes reveal a different side of the youngster and gives us a glimpse in to his true mentality. De Bruyne reveals that he is not the sort of player that talks to his coach a lot and that he is not the most open player. That much is evident just from watching his on-field demeanor. The Belgian winger was not too arrogant to accept his place in the bench, he was just too meek to fight for it.
The type of player who fights for his place and proves to his manager he belongs is by nature a fighter and De Bruyne is anything but. He rarely displays any emotion when on the field and is just as subdued even after scoring spectacular goals. That much is evident when viewing one of his many highlight videos on YouTube wherein De Bruyne wheels away in subdued celebration after scoring an absolute screamer, often crossing himself in tribute to his faith.
Kevin De Bruyne is not the type of player who wills himself through emotion to overcome an opponent and is often the calmest player on the pitch. That calm and cool demeanor may have been mistaken for weakness by Jose Mourinho who prefers players with a fighting spirit such as Diego Costa or even to an extent Oscar or Cesc Fabregas.
That meekness on the surface of De Bruyne’s personality may have fooled Mourinho in to thinking that he just did not care enough to fight for his place in the team. The popular saying of “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is perfectly applicable here as the desperate to play De Bruyne may just have not squeaked enough to earn his manager’s attention.
His attitude may keep him from being a success on the big stage at Manchester City but he could very well prove us wrong. He has proven himself with little expectations at Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg but how will he deal with the weight of the price tag?
That calm, cool demeanor could be what allows him to shake off that pressure of being a big-money signing and it could be the reason Chelsea FC missed out on a potential world-class player. One that they signed for a relative pittance of just £7 million. Just three years later City forked over £55m for the privelige of having them on their squad. Maybe nice guys don’t always finish last.
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