Blues boss critical of potential City new-boy.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has aimed a sly dig at potential Manchester City signing Kevin De Bruyne ahead of a proposed £60m move to the Etihad Stadium, the Daily Mirror reports.
The Belgian international is looking increasingly likely to make the move from Wolfsburg to City for big money this summer, though additional reporting from the Daily Telegraph say it could be closer to a £50m fee.
Regardless, it seems like City are landing themselves a genuine world class talent if they do bring in the 24-year-old, who contributed an incredible 10 goals and 20 assists to Wolfsburg’s campaign last season.
With stats like that, it’s surprising that the player never got more of a chance to prove himself during his time at Stamford Bridge, where he made only nine appearances in total before being offloaded to the Bundesliga.
This was despite De Bruyne also showing some fine form on loan at Werder Bremen in a first spell away from the club, notching up 10 goals and 11 assists in the 2012/13 season.
However, Mourinho has now revealed that he felt De Bruyne had an attitude problem and could not handle the fight to become first choice at Chelsea, despite the presence of so many big names ahead of him, and that is why he made the choice to let him leave.
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Speaking about the possibility of his former player moving to City, the Portuguese coach said: “I am happy for him, because he is a good kid. I wanted to keep him. But he couldn’t handle fighting for his place in such a competitive squad.
“He told me it was not in his personality to be competing for a position in the team. He needed a team where he knows he can play every game.
“I told him, ‘This is Chelsea. You are very young, you have Eden Hazard, you have Mata, you have Willian, you have Schurrle, and I cannot promise you that.'”