Kevin de Bruyne says he only spoke to Jose Mourinho twice when he was at Chelsea, and has revealed the conversation that led to his departure from Stamford Bridge.
Now at Manchester City after a productive spell at Wolfsburg, De Bruyne is showing Mourinho and Chelsea what they missed out on as he chases a second successive Premier League title.
De Bruyne was said to have a difficult relationship with Mourinho, but in an interview with the Player's Tribune, he insisted there was little opportunity to develop any animosity.
He said: "When I was at Chelsea, there was so much in the press about my relationship with José Mourinho. But the truth is that I only ever spoke to him twice.
"The plan was always for me to go on loan for a bit. So I went to Werder Bremen in 2012, and that season went great. When I came back to Chelsea the next summer, a few German clubs wanted to sign me.
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"But then Mourinho texted me, 'You are staying. I want you to be part of this team.'”
De Bruyne went on to explain how he started the first two games of the 2013-14 season, but was then sidelined again and left out of the first team picture.
That led to another meeting with Mourinho, which ended in De Bruyne asking for a transfer away.
"José called me into his office in December, and it was probably the second big life-changing moment for me," De Bruyne said.
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"He had some papers in front of him, and he said, “One assist. Zero goals. Ten recoveries. It took me a minute to understand what he was doing. Then he started reading the stats of the other attacking forwards — Willian, Oscar, [Juan] Mata, [Andre] Schürrle.
"José was just kind of waiting for me to say something, and finally I said, 'But … some of these guys have played 15, 20 games. I’ve only played three. So it’s going to be different, no?'
"It was so strange. We had a bit of a conversation about me going back out on loan. And Mata was also out of favor at the time, so José said, “Well, you know, if Mata leaves, then you will be the fifth choice instead of sixth.”
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"I was completely honest. I said, 'I feel like the club doesn’t really want me here. I want to play football. I’d rather you sell me.'
"I think José was a bit disappointed, but to be fair to him, I think he also understood that I absolutely needed to play.
"So the club ended up selling me, and there was no big problem at all. Chelsea got more than double the price they paid for me, and I got into a much better situation at Wolfsburg."
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