Kevin De Bruyne has warned that his future is uncertain, and he did not hide his frustration with Antonio Conte at Napoli.
The former Manchester City hero was a free agent when he accepted the move to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last summer.
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However, he did not have time to enjoy the opportunity for very long. A serious femoral right injury at the end of October kept him out until March.
The Belgian ended up making 21 mandatory appearances for Napoli, with five goals and four assists. But he never quite found the tone with his own coach.
In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad before the World Cup, De Bruyne revealed just how bad the chemistry between him and Conte really was.
De Bruyne did not get along with Conte
“Of course, it was difficult for me, because Conte has a very different view of football than me. The truth is, I never got the opportunity to play in my preferred position,” he said.
“Regardless, I always tried to give my best for the team.”
De Bruyne vented his frustration with Conte and the often defensive approach the team had to games.
“We played very defensively. If you’re trying to win every game by a one-goal margin with a 4-5-1 formation, then you’re playing a certain type of football. At the start of the season, we retreated even further,” he said.
“Our centre-forward only scored ten goals, so you can see that the stats are not very impressive…”
“For my part, yes
When asked if he was happy that Conte had left Napoli, De Bruyne did not hide his answer.
“For my part, yes. As far as I’m concerned, he wasn’t obligated to stay,” he said.
“Promises were made last summer about the way we were going to play, but at the end of the day, there wasn’t much of it. I thought that was a shame.”
“Football is supposed to be fun, and unfortunately I missed that joy. There’s no point in going around the bush – we have very different views on football. I never got to play in my position under Conte,” he added.
Future still uncertain
As for the future, De Bruyne will not promise anything – even if Conte is no longer at the helm.
“I have one year left on my contract, but I want to talk about it,” he said.
“There was a lot of talk last year about how we were going to play and what we were going to do, but none of that happened.”
Considering that the main candidate to take over at Napoli is Massimiliano Allegri, who if possible is even more defensively inclined than Conte, we may well see De Bruyne leave the club.
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