Kevin de Bruyne

[quickpassnmove 924]

On 9/11/2016 at 4:56 PM, Gorando said:

I remember I was ridiculed by almost everyone on this forum when I said KDB was a better player than Oscar.

How times have changed...

I missed that one. 

Clearly some people on this forum can't see quality, but I don't understand how when you could see passing ability from Kevin that Chelsea lacked and, in fact, a level of passing ability along with accurate shot velocity that most clubs anywhere in the world lack. If you were watching Kevin at Genk in 2010, you would have seen his ability to whip the ball from the left wing and watched him cross better than most players in subsequent months and seasons. Also the vicious shots and fearlessness on the ball.

Again (I've posted this previously): as much as the Fernando Torres deal was an awful action in January 2011, Chelsea managed to top that stupid move by dumping KDB without a buyback clause. 

So, now we can wait to see the dumb move in a single transaction. Can CFC top it?

[quickpassnmove 924]

11 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

In hindsight, what a stupid decision this was selling him. Stupid, stupid decision, up there with buying torres instead of aguero. 

In some of our eyes, this never about hindsight; it was absolutely moronic when it happened. KDB may never score as many goals as Lampard, but was surely had a good chance to be our most talented goal-producing machine in MF after Frank --with arguably much more dangerous passing and whip on his crosses than Frank ever displayed.

[blues.bridge 343]

Now everyone is good to say that KDB is a great player and willian  a fuck*n' shit!

I said it 3 years ago in italian forum and at those time chelsea's fan gave me incompetent

[Neira 19]

On 18-1-2014 at 11:56 AM, bushman said:

Some succeed, others do not. KDB was one of those that didn´t make it.

Personally, I feel the club made the right decision here. To me, his ability, play skills were exaggerated.

Quote

16-12-2017: Pep Guardiola said Kevin de Bruyne is helping Manchester City become "a better institution" after the playmaker put in an inspired performance to help his side outclass Tottenham for a 16th successive Premier League victory that stretched their lead to 14 points.

Some great reads in this post about KDB, predictions a few years ago.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Funny how people are slagging Mourinho off for getting rid, NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could have predicted his development. I went to a League Cup game in 2013 away at Swindon and he was, by far, the worst player on the pitch. 

[Miki-Liki 405]

Many people did though, and we'll never know why he was dropped despite being the best player in preseason and playing extremely well in his first game against Hull in 2013. Oh, well, it doesn't really matter now.

[blues.bridge 343]

33 minutes ago, BlueLion. said:

Funny how people are slagging Mourinho off for getting rid, NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could have predicted his development. I went to a League Cup game in 2013 away at Swindon and he was, by far, the worst player on the pitch. 

nobody? I did it! it was enough to see him play with a minimum of attention to see his talent when we played for us or follow him with Wolfsburg.

[Weckerz 3,781]

1 hour ago, BlueLion. said:

Funny how people are slagging Mourinho off for getting rid, NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could have predicted his development. I went to a League Cup game in 2013 away at Swindon and he was, by far, the worst player on the pitch. 

Any Belgian ever on this forum did, but were automatically branded a fanboy

[manpe 10,861]

1 hour ago, BlueLion. said:

NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could have predicted his development.

Strange, Wolfsburg and City could. Maybe our scouts and coaches just plain suck at assessing potential development?

[Magic Lamps 11,668]

KDB is like the polar opposite of Willian in terms of body vs mind. Willian has blistering pace and is probably one of the most skilfull players in the lague yet he is so slow in this mind that he can barely use this to his advantage. Kdb is not remotedly as quick (quick enough, probably a good trainer but not a born sprinter like Willian, Sane, Walker etc) and probably not as technically gifted as Willian but he produces and produced just with his sheer will, straightforward play and quick thinking always being ahead of the other in his mind. He never seemed to quite fit in here even though I thought that he showed flashes of brilliance in his brief time here. Also in Belgium nt he struggled to fit in with Hazard for some time, but right now I see no player who would better fit in that ROM in our 3-4-3. 

[Stats 7,059]

1 hour ago, BlueLion. said:

Funny how people are slagging Mourinho off for getting rid, NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND could have predicted his development. I went to a League Cup game in 2013 away at Swindon and he was, by far, the worst player on the pitch. 

Top players have poor games. Against Hull, I thought he was by far our best player and his pre-season form was very good too. It was obvious we let a good player go.  We invested in him and did not actually wait to see him grow. It was a huge mistake from Mourinho, no two-ways about it.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

1 hour ago, manpe said:

Strange, Wolfsburg and City could. Maybe our scouts and coaches just plain suck at assessing potential development?

I think our scouts shouldn't be blamed considering they were the ones who discovered KdB in the first place. However, our manager at the time thought Oscar is better...

[manpe 10,861]

I think our scouts shouldn't be blamed considering they were the ones who discovered KdB in the first place. However, our manager at the time thought Oscar is better...

Our managers hold no ultimate power in transfers. The club had to sanction the sale.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Jase 43,479]

55 minutes ago, manpe said:

Our managers hold no ultimate power in transfers. The club had to sanction the sale.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

But if the manager doesn't rate the player at all, then there is no point for the club to keep him and continue to pay the wages, no?

[manpe 10,861]

But if the manager doesn't rate the player at all, then there is no point for the club to keep him and continue to pay the wages, no?

With the revolving door in place the club should trust its original judgement for a bit longer. But you're right in the sense that kdb was pushing for a permanent move away because of Mourinho and ultimately it did his career a world of good.

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[Leif 6,006]

Good point. For the club to ultimately consider De Bruyne recruitable, multiple people in the club (scouts, board, Roman) must've agreed 'he's good.' To then allow 1 man (it seems) to choose he's not worthy, is not the right way of doing things. Both the coach & everyone above him takes the blame in that scenario for letting him go.
Amateurs like us were praising him to high heavens even after his shittest games for us. If we could see it, they could see it (surely). Ultimately they didn't trust their own eyes, which is pretty crazy.

I don't believe De Bruyne would've been quite the player he is for City had he stayed here though; no creative player reaches their potential with us. I still would've kept him regardless; I saw him as a great Xabi Alonso-type to play deep, if he could pick up intercepting ability. I said then and i'll say now - his pin-point accuracy that he churns out game after game, is something I only saw in the very best few games of Beckham, who was pretty much championed for his ability to cross the ball and hit wonder-passes. 

I do think for most of us, we saw he was a once in a generation talent.

This is a stupid tangent now, but replace Zidane during his Juventus years with De Bruyne, replace Kaka at Milan with De Bruyne, replace even Xabi Alonso or Gerrard at Liverpool with De Bruyne, and he'd be considered one of the best talents of all time; he would've matched them one way or another. In this modern era, especially at City, I'm not sure he'll ever get that tag. He'd deserve it though. 

[ja1 1,166]

"and probably not as technically gifted as Willian"

 

no, Willian may be better at dribbling but KDB has mastered drives from the edge of the box, crossing, free kicks, fantastic passing range.

[positivefootball 195]

Willian isnt better then KDB at anything except maybe taking useless touches.