Kevin De Bruyne: Jose Mourinho only spoke to me twice at Chelsea

Belgium attacking midfielder Kevin De Bruyne claims former manager Jose Mourinho gave him the silent treatment during his time at Stamford bridge.

De Bruyne, Manchester City’s £54m club record signing, is set to make his first Premier League start for Manuel Pellegrini’s side against West Ham on Saturday after making his debut as a substitute against Crystal Palace last week.

But despite Mourinho’s subsequent claims that De Bruyne could not cope with the pressure of fighting for his place, De Bruyne insists that the Portuguese did little to convey those views at the time.

"I didn't get any explanation,” De Bruyne said. “I only talked with him twice, Mourinho.

“That was before the Champions League 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.

“And then one week before January, that's the day I said I wanted to go out because even if I was training better, I was not getting any minutes.

“So for me personally, it was better to go."

“You can’t compare with me two years ago at Chelsea,” De Bruyne said. “It’s a different situation and I am a completely different person than I was then.

“I was nineteen when I signed and then worked with three managers and just didn’t play that much.

“I had come from Werder Bremen, where I played every second, so the difference was huge. I wasn’t even on the bench.

“I was probably a bit eager to play all the time at Chelsea and maybe should have taken it a little bit more slowly.

“But I don’t regret it (leaving). I just wanted to go at that time, either a sale or loan. I just needed to go so that things could be better for me personally.

“Selling was probably better than loaning because, if you go on loan, you just return to the same situation.

“I would still have been a young player coming back from a small club to a big club and I would have had to prove myself all over again.

“That’s okay if you are 17 or 18, but I had always had four or five years of football behind me so it was different.”

With Mourinho’s suggestion that De Bruyne was averse to fighting for his place among a team of stars, the player’s desire for uninterrupted, regular football has been cited as a negative, rather than positive, quality.

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