Kevin De Bruyne was “stroppy” and “moody” when playing for Chelsea, according to Chelsea cult hero John Obi Mikel, before he blossomed into a top Premier League player at Man City.

Kevin de Bruyne struggled at Chelsea

Kevin De Bruyne was “stroppy” and “moody” during his spell at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, according to a Blues cult hero.

De Bruyne was labelled as a ‘£50million flop’ when he returned to the Premier League with Manchester City in 2015, following his disastrous Chelsea spell. And John Obi Mikel has now lifted the lid on what went wrong for the Belgian.

Mikel revealed: “Kevin was always a stroppy guy, he was always on his own, he was always moody, he was always grumpy. You could never get anything out of him. But now when I watch him play… what a joy. What a joy to watch.”

Kevin de Bruyne recalls ‘distant’ relationship with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea

Writing about his time at Chelsea in the Players Tribunal, De Bruyne said: “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 realise is that when you’re out of favour at a club, you don’t get nearly the same attention during training. At some clubs, it’s like you don’t exist anymore… 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. José 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’.”

Kevin De Bruyne is now one of the best midfielders on the planet

De Bruyne has since gone on to become of the Premier League’s best-ever stars while at the Etihad.

The Belgian wasn’t the only the man to struggle at the Blues in the early 2010s – then go onto bigger better things – with Mohamed Salah also struggling at Stamford Bridge during the same period.

source: www.dailystar.co.uk