Kevin de Bruyne has bared it all about the difficult period under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and that he felt completely unwanted at the club at one point in time.
De Bruyne was technically a Chelsea player from 2012 to 2014, yet he made just three appearances in the Chelsea blue.
He spent a year at Werder Bremen in Bundesliga on loan and came back to Chelsea only to be a reject again.
De Bruyne revealed that throughout his time at Chelsea, he only spoke to Mourinho twice.
"There was so much in the press about my relationship with Jose 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,” De Buryne told Players’ Tribune.
During his loan spell at Werder Bremen, De Bruyne scored 10 goals in 33 appearances and then he was made to feel by Mourinho that he was going to be a part of Chelsea. He was brought back by Chelsea even though the then-Borussia Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp was interested in signing him.
"Mourinho texted me, 'You are staying. I want you to be part of this team'. So I thought, OK, great. I'm in his plans."
The story however changed just a few games into the league. He made two appearances in the first four Premier League games in the 2013-14 season but was dropped to the bench soon.
“Of course, I made some mistakes myself. I was a bit naive about the way that you have to handle yourself as a Premier League footballer. What I think most fans don’t realize is that when you’re out of favor at a club, you don’t get nearly the same attention during training. At some clubs, it’s like you don’t exist anymore.
“If it happened to me now, it wouldn’t be a problem. I know enough to be able to train on my own and take care of myself. But when you’re 21, you don’t understand what it takes. When I got another chance to play, against Swindon Town in the Cup, I wasn’t in good shape. And then that was pretty much it for me.
"Jose called me into his office in December, and it was probably the second big life-changing moment for me. He had some papers in front of him, and he said, 'One assist. Zero goals. Ten recoveries'," De Bruyne revealed.
"It took me a minute to understand what he was doing. Then he started reading the stats of the other attacking forwards - Willian, Oscar, Mata, Schürrle and it's like - five goals, 10 assists, whatever.
De Bruyne went on to argue his case but then felt that he would rather be sold than sit on the bench of a club he felt didn’t want him.
"Jose 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. 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’."
In just the next January transfer window, De Bruyne signed for Wolfsburg in an £18m deal before returning to the Premier League, this time for the Manchester City blue.
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