Jose Mourinho is still infallible to many Chelsea fans.
But surely even the club’s biggest fan can see the mistake in selling Kevin De Bruyne.
Jose Mourinho did not fancy the Belgian during his second spell at Stamford Bridge, and sold him to Wolfsburg for £18m, just 18 months before Manchester City bought him for £55million.
The player scored the goal that sent City into the semi-finals of the Champions League this week, and Chelsea fans are still struggling to get over the fact he was allowed leave.
When you realise Jose Mourinho sold Kevin de Bruyne for £18m #MCIPSG pic.twitter.com/VF2llvhySu
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 12, 2016
The Belgian was understood to be keen to remain at the club, but Jose Mourinho wanted him to fight for his place along with attacking talents Oscar, Edin Hazard and Juan Mata among others.
Mourinho has claimed the player was not willing to do so. However, in an interview in The Telegraph, the 24 year old claims that a cheap managerial motivational trick from the then Chelsea boss forced him out of the club.
“He called in all the attacking midfielders. He showed us the stats of his six players – assists, goals, passing percentage, key passes, dribbles. He wanted to prove I didn’t perform on the level of the others.
“I simply answered him: ‘Sorry, that’s not logical. I’ve played less games than the others. How can you compare me to the others?’ That was just not fair in my eyes.”
Just a month later De Bruyne would leave the club, and Chelsea fans would regret the decision ever since.
However, the Belgian doesn’t regret falling out with Mourinho.
“Mourinho told me he wasn’t keen to let me go, even not on a loan – ‘you’re a good player’. But what could I do more? After his press conference in Bucharest(when Mourinho explained the player had been left behind for a Champions League game because of a poor performance in the Capital One Cup), I even started training harder, even on my days off. But my situation never changed. That’s why I asked him in a friendly way: ‘Please let me go.’ Chelsea wanted to loan me out, even wanted me to stay, but I had enough of it. I wanted to leave.”
