Kevin de Bruyne

[iseah100 5,612]

Swear he assists every single Wolfsburg goal

[Tomo 21,681]

I agree...to an extent.

KDB is not innocent in the whole story, but I do admit that about 70% of the fault lies with José and his dogmatic approach with some players like him, Mata etc. He made up from an early stage that he simply does not like a player and he seems to stick with it more often than not. However, the likes of Azpi and Zouma have fought their way into José's team...

Saying that, it does not excuse KDB's atrocious performances against the likes of Brentford. I feel that KDB did not entire give 110% to actually fight for a place; instead, he thought he should be an automatic starter based on talent alone. Similar to Lukaku, but KDB has a lot more natural talent obviously. Maybe if KDB took some solace from Azpi fighting his way into Mourinho's plans he might still be here.

Which brings me to Hazard. Hazard is peculiar because, essentially, he seemed to be the only one that Mourinho would tolerate no matter what, even if he would have a bad performance or not. I remember myself along with others calling for him to be dropped near the start of Mourinho's tenure, but Mourinho never did.

Based on this, Mourinho seems to only have one place for a player like Hazard or KDB where he will tolerate them no matter what because he knows how good they can be. Or perhaps Mourinho was oblivious that KDB could be on the same level as Hazard. Either way, that part was Mourinho's failing. Not fighting for his place or giving 100% when picked was KDB's.

The thing is, KDB was in no worse a position than Zouma was this season or Cesar last. When you are out of favour in a competitive squad you simply must make the most of the limited chances you get, Zouma and Azpi did, KDB and Salah didn't.

[zolayes 14,489]

The thing is, KDB was in no worse a position than Zouma was this season or Cesar last. When you are out of favour in a competitive squad you simply must make the most of the limited chances you get, Zouma and Azpi did, KDB and Salah didn't.

perhaps their ability wasnt recognised or appreciated

[Stats 6,980]

With this badge on a shirt, it's not so hard to imagine that !

I know but I wanted to see it at us in the PL

It is not even in hindsight but KDB just offers much more than our no.10 Oscar. How Mourinho let him go totally gets to me especially when you consider how inferior our other attacking midfielders are bar Hazard.

[zolayes 14,489]

I know but I wanted to see it at us in the PL

It is not even in hindsight but KDB just offers much more than our no.10 Oscar. How Mourinho let him go totally gets to me especially when you consider how inferior our other attacking midfielders are bar Hazard.

Tomo has just explained ... he didnt say why Luis doesnt get picked tho

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

This is almost as bad as MU losing Pogba for free, I think Kevin is worth like 50m now in this inflated market. Also tbh I am not sure he and Hazard in the team would mean us being automatically amazing going forward. Look at Belgium, maybe it is just me but for some reason Hazard never seems able to impress there while Kevin is a star in that team. This could work but in theory imo not as well as it would be on paper.

[zolayes 14,489]

This is almost as bad as MU losing Pogba for free, I think Kevin is worth like 50m now in this inflated market. Also tbh I am not sure he and Hazard in the team would mean us being automatically amazing going forward. Look at Belgium, maybe it is just me but for some reason Hazard never seems able to impress there while Kevin is a star in that team. This could work but in theory imo not as well as it would be on paper.

we will never know but we HAVE lost a TOP CLASS player

[stroey 2,525]

It does hurts to think we let him go and now we see Oscar playing as our 10.

But this lessens the pain for me:

-Remember that Matic was bought with KDB's money. That was important at the time, in terms of FFP

- We now already have Cesc as our creative maestro who is proven in the EPL. Yes Cesc is now a little off form, but when he was at his best, I think his vision and passing is better than KDB's or at least equal.

- If the rift is true between Courtois and KDB about the girl (which the girl openly admitted). Would it have worked between those 2 or would 1/2 have left eventually?

I'd say forget about him and look forward, we need to find a world class B2B player to complete our current midfield, not a De Bruyne type player.

[zolayes 14,489]

It does hurts to think we let him go and now we see Oscar playing as our 10.

But this lessens the pain for me:

-Remember that Matic was bought with KDB's money. That was important at the time, in terms of FFP

- We now already have Cesc as our creative maestro who is proven in the EPL. Yes Cesc is now a little off form, but when he was at his best, I think his vision and passing is better than KDB's or at least equal.

- If the rift is true between Courtois and KDB about the girl (which the girl openly admitted). Would it have worked between those 2 or would 1/2 have left eventually?

I'd say forget about him and look forward, we need to find a world class B2B player to complete our current midfield, not a De Bruyne type player.

Remember we had Matic and FAILED to see how good he was

[lionsden 4,689]

And De Bruyne wasn't the first player who said that. It seems as though Mourinho tends to give the cold shoulder treatment to the players he doesn't trust/like in his team.

Yet you won't hear a single word of criticism from the same posters that castigated AVB for doing the same thing.

[Rom2013 446]

we will never know but we HAVE lost a TOP CLASS player

Like Mata and his increadible number of goals and assists?

At least Mata was playing for a top team (even if that top team was rtealy bad)... look at him right now.

[lionsden 4,689]

I was just getting over Sturridge and now this. The only way I get over it quickly is if we get a top class AM in the summer that hits the ground running and shift Oscar to the bench where he belongs.

[zolayes 14,489]

Like Mata and his increadible number of goals and assists?

I WAS TALKING ABOUT KDB ... and try spelling INCREDIBLE correctly ..

[Reddish-Blue 2,223]

Yet you won't hear a single word of criticism from the same posters that castigated AVB for doing the same thing.

To be fair AVB was just too inexperienced to be manager of Chelsea (or any other top 6 club). Hope he comes back to the EPL in like 5-10 years and proves that he's a good manager

[Rom2013 446]

I WAS TALKING ABOUT KDB ... and try spelling INCREDIBLE correctly ..

I'm sorry for that...

But yes you can continue the overreaction about players that were shit here and are good now in decent teams.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

All the talk about us making a mistake in letting him go are completely irrelevant because we did not "let him go", he asked to leave, it was his decision.

And I'm one of Kevin's biggest fan since his first spell in Germany and I was always the one to defend him when some of the same people wanting him back now were calling him shit last season. BUT it was clearly not working out for him here for various reasons, some of it because Jose, some because of Kevin himself, and some just down to bad luck.

Maybe had he stayed after Mata left he would have been able to turn it around, but we can only speculate. But we always knew that he was a top talent and obviously so did Wolfsburg and that was reflected in the fee we received. I'm very happy to see him developing so well and proving himself more and more, but that does not in any way change the fact that the deal we got for him was very good.

In a deal where literally ALL the opinions at the time fell between "excellent business" and "take it and run we've ripped Wolfsburg off", you cannot with any legitimacy criticize the club and manager now in retrospective unless your criticism is that the board should have used the time machine in Roman's secret lab to see how he develops at Wolfsburg before agreeing to the deal, and even then it remains a good deal considering the circumstances at the time.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, try to be more happy for Kevin and less bitter towards the club.

[zolayes 14,489]

I'm sorry for that...

But yes you can continue the overreaction about players that were shit here and are good now in decent teams.

not an over reaction to say we were wrong to let him go // When we got rid of Matic I said that was wrong as well .. so it isnt just hindsight .

I still think we were wrong to get rid of Bertrand and Lukaku and I think we have wasted Ake and Kalas

[zolayes 14,489]

All the talk about us making a mistake in letting him go are completely irrelevant because we did not "let him go", he asked to leave, it was his decision.

And I'm one of Kevin's biggest fan since his first spell in Germany and I was always the one to defend him when some of the same people wanting him back now were calling him shit last season. BUT it was clearly not working out for him here for various reasons, some of it because Jose, some because of Kevin himself, and some just down to bad luck.

Maybe had he stayed after Mata left he would have been able to turn it around, but we can only speculate. But we always knew that he was a top talent and obviously so did Wolfsburg and that was reflected in the fee we received. I'm very happy to see him developing so well and proving himself more and more, but that does not in any way change the fact that the deal we got for him was very good.

In a deal where literally ALL the opinions at the time fell between "excellent business" and "take it and run we've ripped Wolfsburg off", you cannot with any legitimacy criticize the club and manager now in retrospective unless your criticism is that the board should have used the time machine in Roman's secret lab to see how he develops at Wolfsburg before agreeing to the deal, and even then it remains a good deal considering the circumstances at the time.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, try to be more happy for Kevin and less bitter towards the club.

Lets NOT suggest Jose has got something wrong