Chelsea star Eden Hazard has urged Kevin De Bruyne to leave Stamford Bridge in order to be ready for the World Cup next summer in Brazil.
De Bruyne has been a consistent performer for Belgium and although he performed well in the 2-0 defeat against Columbia he has so far failed to impress Jose Mourinho at Chelsea this season.
Following that match his club and international team-mate Hazard spoke publicly of the advice he’d give the 22-year-old:
“For sure, playing at a World Cup without having been in action for a year, I think that’s very difficult.
“I think for him that leaving and playing, that would be good.
“If we want to get the best out of Kevin, I think that it’s best if he leaves.”
There’s something a little bit sad about one Chelsea player telling another to leave to save his World Cup dream but it was always going to come to this after Jose Mourinho publicly castigated De Bruyne for his performance against Swindon in the Capital One Cup. The player was bad in that game for sure, so were his team-mates and it was wrong to make a scapegoat of him by singling him out.
Following that match Mourinho left the player out of the squad for the next Champions League game as he stayed in London to play with the under-21s. Throughout the current season so far you have fans arguing over events like this as many fans are starting to question why Mourinho is making enemies within his own squad whilst an equal number of fans seem to be bending backwards in order to justify everything he says and does, it’s a worry.
When we first signed Kevin De Bruyne I didn’t know a whole lot about him as I don’t watch the Belgian league and during his first pre season he looked to be well behind the likes of Juan Mata and Hazard in terms of his development but following a lot of hard work and graft with Werder Bremen as well as the international stage with Belgium, I’d say he deserved a chance and was a bit peeved to see us signing Andre Schurrle and Willian in ahead of him. Don’t get me wrong as they’re good players and I’m glad to have them but I didn’t see much point in strengthening the one area that I wasn’t worried about.
I thought he played a very good game against Hull City on the opening day before the paced died down after an explosive first half-hour. It’s probably the best portion of football Chelsea have played all season as they’ve struggled to link up together at pace like they were doing that day. I saw no reason for Mourinho to call him out in public and risk damaging a relationship between club and player, especially with someone that’s trying to find their feet at Stamford Bridge.
I’ve already spoken about the fact we could lose promising talents like De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois and Romelu Lukaku and think it’s more than justified to question just why so much young talent falls by the wayside at the club.
