Kevin de Bruyne leaves Manchester City and is not happy with that, but one of the best midfielders in the Era of the Premier League is simply the last player to discover that football is a ruthless business in which yesterday does not count for anything. Trent Alexander-Arnold has shown that the cruelty in reverse by rejecting Liverpool's offer of a new lucrative contract to leave the club he joined at six years as a free agent, but as a player at his best, the 26-year-old player was in a powerful position to choose between staying in Anfield or, as it seems likely, Eck in a new adventure in Spain with Real Madrid.
However, for De Bruyne, it is a different story.
The International of Belgium has helped the city win six titles of the Premier League, a champions league, two FA glasses and five EFL glasses during its time in the club and registered 108 goals and 177 assists in 418 appearances since it arrived in the summer of 2015. However, he turns 34 years at the end of June, and City has decided that his future seems as impressive as his past.
“Obviously, I was a bit surprised, but I just have to accept it,” said Bruyne last month when he announced that he would leave the city at the expiration of his contract this summer. “I have not had any offer throughout the year, they simply made a decision.”
Despite becoming the city's best player in the transfer of £ 55 million VFL Wolfsburg, the club's hierarchy, including the Txiki Begiristain football director, executive president Ferran Soriano and the Pep Guardiola manager, have come to the conclusion that the time of De Bruyne and now has no other option to go to go to the door etihada.
“Many teammates have said that it is sad that I have to leave, but this is how sometimes it goes in life,” said De Bruyne after scoring the only goal of the game in the victory of the premier League 1-0 in the city against Wolves last Friday. “I don't know what the future will be.
“Honestly, I still think I can act at this level as I am showing, but I understand that clubs have to make decisions.”
It is unusual for players to be as vocal as Bruyne has been about their rejection by the city, especially a high profile figure. When Chelsea released Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole at the end of their contracts in 2014, both left Stamford Bridge with a positive note, accepting that it was the right time to move. John Terry expressed similar feelings when he left Chelsea three years later. On the contrary, from Bruyne, who has been linked to a transfer to Major League Soccer with Chicago Fire after Inter Miami gave its rights of discovery, clearly feels that it has unfinished business as a player of the city, and that the opportunity to complete it has taken him away.
However, few clubs have dominated the art of timing the departure of their great players and cities. David Silva (to the true society), Vincent Kompany (Anderlecht Player-Manager) and Sergio Agüero (Barcelona) left the etihad at the expiration of their contracts, and none was close to matching, much less to overcome, their feats of the city elsewhere.
Bruyne could argue that his performances in recent weeks show that he still has much to give, but clubs like City make contractual decisions based on what a player can do in 12 to 24 months of time, and do so with evidence obtained from training yields, physical conditioning data and the time recovery time, as well as what happens in the field for the first team. The recent history of De Bruyne will have established the alarms of the alarms within the recruitment of the city because, with the player approaching at age 30, his numbers suggest that his decline has already begun.
Since he left the final victory of the Champions League against Inter Milan in Istanbul in June 2023 with an injury to the hamstrings, Bruyne has lost 40 games of a possible 109 for the city due to physical conditioning problems: 34 of which are due to ischiotibial problems. It has begun only 17 of the 3rd games of the city's premier league this season, which is presented as a substitute for eight of them. Five consecutive openings are the longest uninterrupted sequence of De Bruyne in the Premier League, and with four goals, he is ongoing for his lowest return since he scored only twice for a season affected by injuries in 2018-19.
Although Bruyne has been the city player for the great occasion in the past, scoring decisive goals against the rivals of the title and heavyweights of the Champions League, this season's goals have scored against Ipswich, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Leyton Orient and Plymouth.
The Guardiola city administrator has been a diplomatic when asked about the decision to free De Bruyne, referring to his past achievements and contribution, saying that it will be “almost impossible” to replace it. “He has been an incredible player, but the situation is what he is,” said Guardiola after the winning goal of De Bruyne against Wolves last week.
It is Guardiola's last comment that probably cuts the bone: “The situation is what it is.”
When a player has fulfilled his purpose and the decline signs crawl, even the best has to move on. Bruyne is suffering right now, but he just has to look at his numbers to realize that the city is not wrong.
