Jose Mourinho insists allowing Kevin De Bruyne to leave Chelsea was NOT his decision

Jose Mourinho has lifted the lid on how Kevin De Bruyne's £18million sale from Chelsea to Wolfsburg seven years ago panned out, stating that it was not his decision to let him go.

The Belgium star only made nine appearances for the Blues and enjoyed a loan spell at German side Werder Bremen in two years at Stamford Bridge.

In 2014 the midfielder was sold for £18m to Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, before moving to Manchester City in a £52m deal a year later.

The 29-year-old has gone on to be one of the best players in the world and won the Premier League's PFA Player of the Year for the second successive year earlier this month.

Chelsea have been left to rue allowing a player of De Bruyne's calibre go but Mourinho, who was Blues boss at the time, has revealed it was not his choice to let him depart.

'He impressed me so much I made the decision I don't want this kid to go on loan, I want him to stay, and in our first match of the Premier League season he started against Hull City,' Mourinho told talkSPORT.

'In the second match we got to Old Trafford and after this he come to me and said, "I want to play every match, I want to play every minute". He put a lot of pressure on that.

'He wanted to leave, he wanted to go to Germany where he was previously on loan and so happy, and his decision was to go. He put big pressure on that and it worked very well for him.

'The story is there and the quality of the player is absolute, he is top five in the world.'

Mourinho added that De Bruyne was not prepared to bide his time and wait for his chance at Stamford Bridge.

'When he was supposed to leave on loan and I made the decision for him to stay, I saw those qualities. He did not have the experience and maturity he has now, but his feet and his vision was already there,' he continued.

'He knew very well what he wanted and he was not ready to have that season at Chelsea where a lot of good players were in the same team, he didn't have the patience.

'He was not ready for that, he was coming from a season in Germany where he was playing every minute of every match.

'Sometimes us coaches make mistakes, but that was not the case. I saw he had the potential to do it, but he just knew perfectly well what he wanted.'