Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has revealed that Chelsea’s controversial loan system played a key role in his decision to leave Stamford Bridge.

The 26-year-old spent two years with the Premier League champions between 2012 and 2014, although most of his time was spent on loan spells abroad. De Bruyne has since joined Manchester City following a stellar spell with German club Wolfsburg, and he is now regarded as one of the leading midfielders in the Premier League.

In a Belgian news conference on Thursday, De Bruyne discussed the difficult period he went through in the Blues’ loan system, he said: “After those experiences, I’d rather wanted to be sold. Otherwise, I would end up in the same situation all over again: playing well on loan, returning to your parent club and then, every year again, feel like the young player back from loan who still has everything to prove. That’s something I didn’t want to experience for the third time in a row. Let’s say that I would perform well at Wolfsburg, that I would play a good World Cup and that I would return to Chelsea afterwards with the same status that I had before. No, I didn’t fancy that. I decided to leave on a permanent basis.”

De Bruyne initially started his Citizens career in the attacking midfield role, but Pep Guardiola has pushed him into a more central position, where he has more chances of dictating the game. The Belgian footballer has not put a foot wrong since the start of the campaign, and talks over a fresh extension are already underway in order to prevent speculation about his future.

Apart from De Bruyne, the likes of David Silva and Gabriel Jesus are also in line for contract extensions with the latter set to take the striker’s burden in the injury absence of Sergio Aguero. Manchester City beat Chelsea by a 1-0 scoreline in their previous league outing with De Bruyne netting a stunning winner against his former employers.