Former Chelsea star Kevin De Bruyne has come clean about his difficult relationship with Jose Mourinho prior to his exit from Stamford Bridge in 2014.

De Bruyne was brought to Stamford Bridge as a teenager in 2012 from Belgium side Genk, however despite his talent, was never given his shot in South West London.

The Belgium international was first loaned out to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen before returning to Chelsea after being promised first-team football by then manager Jose Mourinho.

That promise however never materialised, and after a difficult half-season with the Blues in which he made only three league appearances, De Bruyne was sold to Wolfsburg.

“I would say distant,” De Bruyne told The Premier League Show when asked about his relationship with Mourinho.

“I’m not really somebody who speaks a lot with coaches if a coach wants to speak with you, then you just you do it. He is the boss, you can be good with each other but still there’s a distance between a coach and a player.

“I only spoke with him twice — when I wanted to leave to [Borussia] Dortmund at the beginning of the summer and the second meeting I just said for me it’s better to go, I want to play football.”

De Bruyne’s sale proved to be a huge mistake on the part of Mourinho and Chelsea, with the Belgian going on to win the Bundesliga Player of the Year in 2014/15 before his return to England with Manchester City where he has since established himself as one of the world’s best midfielders.

After his successful spell in Germany, De Bruyne had options to move to either PSG or Bayern Munich, however the 26-year-old says he chose to move to City was purely a footballing decision.

“I felt the way City were chasing after me, the plan with all the people coming in, I thought for me, the probability of the type of football I can play, it would suit me the best,” he added.