Frank Lampard Reveals Why Mourinho Sold De Bruyne at Chelsea Ahead of EPL Reunion

• Chelsea's decision to sell Kevin De Bruyne in 2014 came back to haunt them
• De Bruyne failed to kick it off at Chelsea but established himself at Wolfsburg and later at Manchester City
• Frank Lampard has attempted to explain why he thinks the club sold the talented midfielder

Chelsea fans still rue the day the club decided to sell Kevin De Bruyne in 2014. The midfielder was bought from Genk in 2012 but failed to make an impact at Stamford Bridge.

Jose Mourinho was the manager in charge when Chelsea decided to move on De Bruyne, with the Belgian leaving for Wolfsburg.

He resuscitated his career in Germany, winning the Bundesliga Player of the Season in the 2014/2015 season before Manchester City forked out an excess of 60 million euros to bring him back to England in 2015.

He has since established himself as one of the best midfielders of his generation. His former teammate, now Chelsea's caretaker coach, Frank Lampard, has now admitted that he was always a fan of De Bruyne, but the abundance of world-class talent at Chelsea at that time made it difficult to break through.

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Lampard's thoughts on De Bruyne

Lampard was coming at the end of his career but De Bruyne still faced competition from the likes of André Schürrle, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.

"When I think back to his time at Chelsea, at that time, we were mainly playing a 4-2-3-1 formation, and I was playing a bit deeper as one of the two sixes. Kevin was fighting more for the No.10 position or one of the two wide players." as quoted by Metro Sports.

I don’t personally know the intricacies of what happened at the time between him, the club and the manager but looking back now I respect the fact he did leave to play regular football. You can see that hunger in his game and he’s always wanted to showcase that talent he’s got."

Lampard further credited the 31-year-old for taking the bold step of leaving Chelsea - a decision that greatly paid off. De Bruyne is now a four-time Premier League winner, among other achievements.

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The two will meet on May 21 at the Etihad Stadium as Lampard looks to spoil Manchester City's title party. A win for De Bruyne's side will see them retain the Premier League with two games to spare.

3 controversial calls in Champions League

De Bruyne's blueprint was all over the semifinal as he scored a thunderbolt to equalise proceedings in the first leg on May 9.

There was nothing wrong with the Belgian's shot, only that a few seconds earlier, Bernardo Silva had retrieved the ball after it had crossed the line for a throw-in, but the officials failed to spot it. VAR failed to review the incident and Ancelotti was so furious that he got himself booked.

As Sports Brief reported, there have been more scandalous decisions in the Champions League in the past; goals and decisions that stood that weren't supposed to.