Chelsea have let a number of top talents slip through their fingers, but their Kevin De Bruyne catastrophe came off the back of what could have been their greatest deadline day bargain
Every time Chelsea take on Manchester City in the Premier League, the London side are reminded of the mistake they made letting go of Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian scored the only goal of the game when City beat the Blues in their last Premier League meeting, and has lifted the Premier League trophy three times since moving to the Etihad Stadium in 2015.
De Bruyne joined City off the back of several impressive seasons in the Bundesliga, having left Chelsea during Jose Mourinho’s second spell in charge.
However, it was a different Portuguese manager in the dugout when the midfielder moved to west London in a move which could have ended up as one of the bargains of the century.
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Andre Villas-Boas was a few months into his Chelsea tenure when De Bruyne arrived on January 31, 2012 after some impressive form for Genk.
He had scored five times in the Belgian league as a teenager in the 2010-11 season, prompting the Blues to pounce in a deal worth a reported £6.7m as part of a two-pronged transfer approach at the time.
Villas-Boas had brought in senior stars Juan Mata and Raul Meireles over the summer, but a drive to add young talent to the ranks was going on at the same time.
Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois had both joined in the close-season, with the former playing a handful of games under the new boss and the latter immediately joining Atletico Madrid on loan.
De Bruyne was also loaned out, staying at Genk for the remainder of the season, and Villas-Boas made clear his limited role in the deal.
“It’s a target that’s decided by the club, that I knew about for quite some time,” the manager said.
“He was under the scrutiny of the club for some time. We’ve been following this player.
“Lukaku the same, and Petr Cech was the same when we arrived in 2004.
“In the sense that it’s the club policy for the future. It’s the right thing (to buy him) and I’ll do everything in my power for him to reach maximum potential.
“But it’s down to the club in decision-making.”
De Bruyne was one of two highly-regarded youngsters to arrive at the end of the January transfer window in 2012, with Patrick Bamford joining from Nottingham Forest at the same time.
The youngster had caught the eye in Genk’s Champions League double-header against Chelsea in the autumn, and helped the Belgian side reach the following season’s Europa League during his brief loan return.
However, by the time the loan ended, Villas-Boas was no longer in charge at Chelsea.
New manager Roberto Di Matteo let De Bruyne continue his development in another loan spell, and he showed a sign of things to come with 10 Bundesliga goals for Werder Bremen, but the Blues had cycled through two more managers before a competitive debut arrived.
We will never know whether Di Matteo or Rafa Benitez might have been willing to give De Bruyne a longer run in the team when he returned from Bremen, but Jose Mourinho was not.
He made just nine appearances – three in the league and six in cup competitions – as the likes of Oscar and Ramires racked up minutes in Mourinho’s midfield.
By the time De Bruyne left in January 2014, a profit of more than £10m on the initial outlay made sense. However, eight years on, the extent of the costly mistake has become clear.
If there’s one thing we can say, though, it’s that Chelsea were onto something during the 2011-12 season.
Courtois, Lukaku and De Bruyne all have multiple trophies to their name, and all have commanded hefty transfer fees along the way.
The Blues might have been left ruing some of their decisions in the years since, but perhaps they really could see into the future, with their only mistake being not to trust their own foresight.
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