Kevin de Bruyne opens door to shock Premier League transfer – here’s why he could play for any club in top flight
IT seems Kevin De Bruyne isn’t ready to leave the Premier League just yet — and nor does any English football lover want to say goodbye.
So, is there a single club in the top flight who wouldn’t benefit from signing the Belgian genius on a free this summer?
Manchester City’s GOAT has been sent to the knacker’s yard by Pep Guardiola but De Bruyne doesn’t sound as if he is heading for filthy-rich semi-retirement in some socially backward nation such as Saudi Arabia or Trumpland.
It was telling De Bruyne stopped to be interviewed by reporters after Saturday’s 2-0 win at Everton and his message was clear — ‘I can still play at this level’ and ‘I’m open for anything’.
A move to Serie A, where veterans are welcomed, or the Bundesliga, where he was voted Footballer of the Year while at Wolfsburg in 2014-15 — his final season before joining City — feels more likely than a stay in the Premier League.
But there was none of the usual, ‘City is in my heart, I could never play against them’ yadda yadda from De Bruyne.
And why should there be when the club he has graced for a decade didn’t offer him so much as a one-year contract with a pay cut?
So surely somebody in the Premier League will make De Bruyne a serious offer to stay in England, where he is settled with his young family?
The problem is that KDB turns 34 in June, while recruitment chiefs and analysts are all obsessed with youth and resale value.
De Bruyne’s sublime passing ability and immense trophy-winning experience don’t fit in with the ‘projects’ and ‘policies’ of most top-flight clubs, where too many boardroom suits are desperate to prove themselves the smartest men in any room.
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There won’t be many plaudits handed out for the no-brainer of signing an obviously wonderful player on a free.
All of City’s current rivals for Champions League football should be in the running for De Bruyne — Aston Villa, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and even Chelsea — the club which ditched him as a youngster and currently have the most dogmatic, ageist transfer policy of all.
He might not play every week and those clubs might all have attacking midfielders with similar profiles — although none possess the same visionary passing range.
But great players can always play together and any club competing in Europe needs a serious range of options.
Most unlikely but intriguing, of all would be De Bruyne performing a ‘reverse Tevez’ and heading to Manchester United — where chaos reigns and the Belgian’s quiet authority would be a boon.
Yet when asked about the player last week, Ruben Amorim spoke about his abilities in the past tense and wished him all the best for “the rest of his life”.
And if it wasn’t for all of his medals, wouldn’t De Bruyne be an archetypal Spurs player?
Or what about Everton, with David Moyes needing some creative spark as he looks towards a new stadium and a brave new world?
Moyes is old school enough to recognise the value of experience.
Or perhaps even Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, who worked with De Bruyne at City, would fancy a pop?
Guardiola is usually a pretty good judge of when a player has reached the end of his shelf-life — the £47.5million sale of Raheem Sterling to Chelsea felt like a huge gamble at the time but he has been proved correct.
Maybe he’s right again with De Bruyne, whose fitness record has been patchy in recent seasons.
Or maybe KDB can find a new home in England and come back to haunt City?
All it needs is for somebody in the Premier League to find the ‘imagination’ to do the bleeding obvious and then we can find out.