Kevin de Bruyne

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Judging by the chances he is limited to I doubt he is even going to want to come back if he has the choice. Likelihood is he still can be excellent at another club but we still will have an embarrassment of riches in the attacking midfield.

The question is no matter how good he get, can he EVER BE BETTER THAN Hazard, Oscar, Mata and even Schurrle/Willian? Who will all develop and improve with time as well. If the answer is no then we got nothing to worry about

[Kajo 176]

Shame we giving up on another talented player hope we won't regret it as much as selling Sturridge.

[wilander 35]

Shame we giving up on another talented player hope we won't regret it as much as selling Sturridge.

He is a talent player, but not the essential one for Chelsea now.

We have much more good AMC (Oscar, Mata, Willian, Schurrle, Hazard), but less healthY DMC (Only Rameriz is healthy, Van Ginkel is inexperienced and injuried, Lampard is too old, Mikel is far from world class level, Essien is burnt out.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

This will haunt Chelsea just like the complete mishandling of Sturridge. The way this club has handed its youth players is frankly appalling

[The only place to be 11,313]

This will haunt Chelsea just like the complete mishandling of Sturridge. The way this club has handed its youth players is frankly appalling

Whilst I agree with that statement in most cases, it's hardly the case here.

22 year old De Bruyne simply hasn't been able to displace 22 year old Oscar, 22 year old Eden Hazard or 23 year old Andre Schurrle.

Now Lukaku....that's a different story.

[Henrique 9,133]

Remember this Sturridge guy? People kept saying he was good and people like you wanted him gone, only to realise his worth when it was already too late.

Obviously it's not going to be the same with De Bruyne because no matter how well he might do for his new club we still have a ridiculous amount of great attacking midfielders whereas with Sturridge gone we had only Torres, but it's still food for thought.

OMFG

I can't believe you are comparing De Bruyne with Sturridge. Sturridge ended 11/12 season as our top scorer, he was easily one of our best player that season, and only RDM didn't realized he was better than Kalou.

Sturridge case was totally different from KDB.

When Bruyne played he has been really bad. The lad is not Chelsea material.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Whilst I agree with that statement in most cases, it's hardly the case here.

22 year old De Bruyne simply hasn't been able to displace 22 year old Oscar, 22 year old Eden Hazard or 23 year old Andre Schurrle.

Now Lukaku....that's a different story.

As was Sturridge. As Henrique and other point out, Sturridge played very well for us (and Bolton) and able to play a position we had no depth at. We got Ba in instead of Sturridge. If we sold Lukaku now when we have nothing close to an elite striker, would be idiotic. Selling De Bruyne wouldn't be. De Bruyne plays attacking midfield so yes, he may end up being good, but ultimately, you have to choose your players and go with them and Chelsea is choosing 5 young players it likes more than De Bruyne and who fit the system better. You can't keep every player and you can't build around every talented youngster. What is the option? Benching players who have been better than De Bruyne so that KDB gets to try to get a rhythm going? That crazy for a team trying to win.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Can't compare Kevin to Sturridge. Danny was by far our best striker when we were refusing to play him and then sold him to protect Goldilocks's "confidence" Kevin, on the other hand, just can't get enough playing time with all the talent we have in his position. We should have realized that he will be gone the moment we signed Willian.

[Stingray 9,441]

Can't compare Kevin to Sturridge. Danny was by far our best striker when we were refusing to play him and then sold him to protect Goldilocks's "confidence" Kevin, on the other hand, just can't get enough playing time with all the talent we have in his position. We should have realized that he will be gone the moment we signed Willian.

Considering Willian's quality, the opportunity and his desire to play here, it is understandable as well. We knew at least one of them would leave. So yes, rational decision to set him free, really.

[The Skipper 20,593]

We should have realized that he will be gone the moment we signed Willian.

A few people did, and those people got roasted on here.

[Stingray 9,441]

We should have realized that he will be gone the moment we signed Willian.

A few people did, and those people got roasted on here.

Hindsight is a wonderfull thing though Skip :-) Hell, some people get roasted on here for defending Mata or Hazard. Other for believing in Mikel, some hate Torres and some love him. If you dare to say anything about Mou you are a plastic. So, it is more a general cancer of this forum than purely related to KDB.

Anyway, if Willian was coming anyway it could have made sense to loan him out at the beginning of the season. Then we would have had all our options open by next season (eg. What if there are major injuries, Mata decides to leave, ...)

Now, no loan, three appearances and a half a season later we seem to have given him very, very minimal opportunities. Also, the entire endeavour doesn't really scream 'clear vision' to say the least. If KDB has no place in Chelsea then what has been the use of putting him in the stands for 4-5 months other than risking frustration and group turmoil.

I love the kid, he gave us a world cup again after ten years and I hope he shines in his next team.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I still think that De Bruyne is more suited to Mourinho's style of play than Mata and that Mata offers the most in terms of transfer value, but the pressure on Jose to play Mata was massive.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I still think that De Bruyne is more suited to Mourinho's style of play than Mata and that Mata offers the most in terms of transfer value, but the pressure on Jose to play Mata was massive.

That's very true. In fact, I think that Jose intended in preseason to rotate Kevin with Oscar and play Juan on the right. But Kevin's performances didn't really help his case. Plus, obviously, in terms of experience and maturity Juan is miles ahead.

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

Hindsight is a wonderfull thing though Skip :-) Hell, some people get roasted on here for defending Mata or Hazard. Other for believing in Mikel, some hate Torres and some love him. If you dare to say anything about Mou you are a plastic. So, it is more a general cancer of this forum than purely related to KDB.

Anyway, if Willian was coming anyway it could have made sense to loan him out at the beginning of the season. Then we would have had all our options open by next season (eg. What if there are major injuries, Mata decides to leave, ...)

Now, no loan, three appearances and a half a season later we seem to have given him very, very minimal opportunities. Also, the entire endeavour doesn't really scream 'clear vision' to say the least. If KDB has no place in Chelsea then what has been the use of putting him in the stands for 4-5 months other than risking frustration and group turmoil.

Totally agree...if KDB wasn't part of Chelsea's plan this season, he could of easily returned to the Bundesliga on loan and polished his skills...rather than sit in the stands for half a season

I like the kid's ability but unfortunately for him, we're just stockpiled with attacking midfielders in the same age group.

[chelseathebest 150]

I think it's best for him to leave. Seems unlikely that he is going to get any games with all those quality attacking players we have in the squad.

It's a shame, at the beginning of this season I thought that Kevin would be an important part of our squad, but it seems that competition is just too strong for him.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Overall he made a massive mistake signing for Chelsea, classic example of player signing for a club too big for his size. I bet if he could go back time he would have never signed for us. This is the problem with modern day young talented players, most of them never really make it big at a big club despite their potential. This will and have applied to: Piazon, Ferus, Kalas, PVA, Bertrands at Chelsea. The only player who will make it here definitely is Courtois but that is because he is just way too good, already top 10 GK in the world at such a young age, the other might be Lukaku but he won't if we sign a new ST, the same reason why the lot I mentioned won't make it here.

These players would have better snubbed Chelsea to sign for clubs like Southampton where they will get a lot of playing time to develop themselves and be ready to join a big club like Chelsea when they reach that level. That is why our dream of self sustaining future with talented youngsters will never work, not with the expectations that we/Roman have. You can't keep on competing at the top with youngsters while other have world class players unless your starting 11 is something like: Courtois, Dave, Varane, Mangala, Digne, Gotze, Matuidi, Pogba, Hazard, Oscar, Neymar.

The only way it works is if every single top players become too expensive to buy even for teams like us, which will never happen. Because when we need a ST for example like we do now, we are not gonna turn to youngsters like Lukaku but rather we gonna buy expensive players soon(Falcao,Costa and so on) in order to achieve IMMEDIATE SUCCESS like CL, league title. This is why no matter how good our academy gets, the days of Terry making it here is pretty much over unless we got the next Rooney in our academy, someone who will score a hat trick in his CL debut.

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Jose #Mourinho on De Bruyne: "We are not going to make a decision on 1 January for sure. He's a very good player."

[Blue Warrior 109]

There might still be hope for the lad then.