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Published 20:15 15 Apr 2019 BST
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Though De Bruyne admits his form was 'not brilliant', the Belgian international clearly felt it was worthy of a prolonged run in the Chelsea side. This, however, never materialised.
'I started two of the first four games of the season, and I thought I played O.K. Not brilliant, but pretty good.
'After the fourth game, that was it. I was on the bench, and I never really got a chance again. I didn’t get an explanation. I was just out of favour for some reason.'
De Bruyne admits he made some mistakes, meaning that when his next opportunity to play came - in a cup game against Swindon Town - he wasn't in good shape. Mourinho later summoned him to his office in December 2013.
'He had some papers in front of him,' De Bruyne recalls. 'He said, “One assist. Zero goals. Ten recoveries.”
'It took me a minute to understand what he was doing. Then he started reading the stats of the other attacking forwards - Willian, Oscar, (Juan) Mata, (André) Schürrle. And it's like - five goals, 10 assists, whatever.
'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. We had a bit of a conversation about me going back out on loan. And Mata was also out of favour at the time, so Jose said, "Well, you know, if Mata leaves, then you will be the fifth choice instead of sixth."
'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."'
Though De Bruyne was sold to Wolfsburg the next month, he insists he has no problem with the way his career at the London club came to an end.
'I think Jose was a bit disappointed, but to be fair to him, I think he also understood that I absolutely needed to play. So the club ended up selling me, and there was no big problem at all.
'Chelsea got more than double the price they paid for me, and I got into a much better situation at Wolfsburg.'
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