Former Chelsea player Kevin de Bruyne – Jose Mourinho’s second-least favourite Belgian – is dredging up some old history. Pass the popcorn.
Jose Mourinho’s media theatrics continue to backfire in the wake of Monday’s FA Cup quarterfinal. The player that Chelsea let slip away to Antonio Conte’s retrospective regret, Kevin de Bruyne, spoke about how Mourinho had it in for him from day one.
Mourinho and de Bruyne have never agreed about the nature of de Bruyne’s departure. Mourinho claimed in 2015 that de Bruyne wanted a job security that Mourinho was not willing to offer. Chelsea’s then-manager said that he wanted to retain de Bruyne, but the young Belgian was unwilling to compete for his place in the squad.
According to Mourinho, de Bruyne told him “I can’t give you more.” Soon after, Chelsea sent him on two loans before selling him to Wolfsburg for £18 million.
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Kevin de Bruyne fired back this week. He said that Mourinho intentionally precluded anyone from verifying his claims about what took place at Cobham. De Bruyne wanted Chelsea’s training open to the public, so the footballing world could independently assess his effort and attitude. Mourinho, though, insisted on a closed-door policy. As a result, it was de Bruyne’s word against Mourinho’s.
"[H]e said in the press that I wasn’t doing what was needed in training. It was easy to say that because there was no-one to check it – the training sessions were closed to the public. – Evening Standard"
Not every player will thrive in every circumstance. Success is as much about the convergence of club, team and manager as it is the individual player in question. Mourinho could very well be 100% accurate in his assessment of the then 22-year old de Bruyne.
Depending on your point of view, de Bruyne has since proven Jose Mourinho very wrong or completely right. De Bruyne won the German Cup with Wolfsburg, who then sold him at a nearly 300% profit to Manchester City. He has been just as effective for City, as Antonio Conte ruefully noted in December.
His performances since leaving Chelsea either show how little he put forth for the Blues, or the importance of being in the right situation. Both explanations support Mourinho’s case. However, de Bruyne clearly believes that he did the same level of work at Chelsea as he has at his subsequent clubs. His lingering resentment towards Mourinho indicates that he thinks he would be in Chelsea’s current starting XI if the previous manager had not so casually dismissed him.
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Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne will surely have a few laughs at Mourinho’s expense the next time they are together for the Belgian national team. De Bruyne may also be getting some messages on the “Mourinho Cast-off” WhatsApp group. How long before we see similar interviews with Andre Schurrle and Mohamed Saleh?