Kevin De Bruyne will leave Man City in a privileged position – but this exit must still be painful

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Between the statue, the mural, the mosaic, the renaming of a road at the training ground, a host of legends sending their regards and current team-mates hoisting him up into the air, there is not much more that Manchester City could have done to give Kevin De Bruyne a fitting send-off.

Ever since De Bruyne announced his departure from City at the start of April, there have been a tidal wave of plaudits and tributes. Even the Goodison Park faithful clapped him off after he had helped see off Everton last month.

After being thrust into debates about the best players to have ever graced the Premier League and hailed as City’s best ever player by chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak — a not insignificant claim — he can be left in no doubt about how he will be remembered.

He stood on the Etihad pitch after full-time of the 3-1 victory over Bournemouth on Tuesday and was brought to the verge of tears by the spectacle of the home fans staying behind to sing his name as the club showed him exactly what he means to them.

The thing is, he does not give the impression that he is ready for all of this. No matter how well-meaning the gestures have been, how heartfelt the messages, imagine how difficult it must be to have the world tell you that you are part of history now, when you clearly believe you still have everything to offer.

De Bruyne with his family during the tributes on Tuesday (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

After that game at Goodison, he stood, at the age of 33 — an old head in the dressing room, but basically a kid in the real world — and fielded questions about his departure from journalists older than him about the ovation, about his place in the game, about all the kind words. As beautiful as it is to get this kind of recognition, and as rare as it is for the vast majority of players, this is the narrative that has been thrust upon him.

The only agency he has had over his future was putting out that statement on a Friday afternoon that he would be leaving City. Pep Guardiola confirmed shortly afterwards that he and sporting director Txiki Begiristain had made the call. Over the next couple of weeks, De Bruyne made it clear that he was not too happy about it.

He was an unused substitute during the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, and as he walked off the Wembley turf, he looked like he would literally rather be anywhere else. Senior club officials have had to step in to try to smooth things over.

This is not, though, about the rights and wrongs of the decision. As he spoke on Tuesday night, the City fans sang, “Kevin De Bruyne, we want you to stay”, and many of them do. He clearly does, or did anyway. At times, his performances have suggested he still has plenty to offer, even if not quite as much as the old days. Other times, he has looked far less polished.

This is about a rare kind of loneliness: being drowned in reverence as the world moves on without you.

City’s video tribute was a tear-jerker and less hardy characters than De Bruyne, nicknamed the tumble dryer due to his dry (and blunt) approach, would surely have cracked and let the tears roll. Indeed, the ever-emotional Guardiola seemed more choked up, as he often is on these occasions, most memorably when Sergio Aguero left in 2021.

Aguero was one of those who contributed a touching video message, and he took the opportunity to call De Bruyne a City legend. “And me too,” he joked, in his own way. The video then went to Mike Summerbee, another club legend and another with a statue outside the ground. De Bruyne’s daughter and wife then added their best wishes; never mind tugging on the heart strings, this was like bell ringing.

“You are so good at scoring and assisting because you kick so hard,” his youngest son said. “It makes me feel like I have the strongest and most amazing dad in the world,” added his eldest.

Fernandinho, Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Pablo Zabaleta, Aymeric Laporte, Joe Hart, Riyad Mahrez and Vincent Kompany all did their bit, too, as a wave of nostalgia took over the Etihad.

Nostalgia has certainly been on the agenda around City over the past few months as heroes of the modern era have seemed to age in front of our eyes. Even some of the most integral players to the club’s greatest era, not least the treble success of 2023, are seeing themselves live long enough to become villains.

Kyle Walker departed on loan in January amid nosediving form and, in some cases, vitriol from exasperated supporters. Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva, two of the most beloved modern-day stars and the glue that has helped hold together Guardiola’s gameplans, have also come in for some frankly disrespectful criticism.

Despite defeat in Saturday’s cup final, City are rallying, the upturn in form over the past six weeks allowing for some optimism for the future. They are also offering enough positivity to be able to look back at old highlights and remember just how good this team were just a short time ago.

There are concerns among the fanbase that those days are coming to an end: City pulled out of the race to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen this week, citing the cost of a deal to bring in the player they had identified to replace De Bruyne.

Guardiola hugs De Bruyne after he was substituted off (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

One of the reasons for City’s success over such a long time is that they have generally managed to transition smoothly between their most important players. Ederson eventually replaced Hart, Ruben Dias came in for Kompany, Gundogan for David Silva, Rodri for Fernandinho, and De Bruyne for Yaya Toure.

That conveyor belt has seemingly stalled over the past couple of years, putting the club in a situation where they need to find a couple of ready-made answers this summer in a way that they last had to in 2017, when Bernardo, Walker and Ederson joined.

Tuesday night may well have been Ederson’s final outing at the Etihad, too, and while there have been reports about Bernardo returning to Benfica, his boyhood club, he talks like a man who wants to stay and put things right.

Gundogan is staying, too, Guardiola signed a new contract in November, and with Rodri returning to the pitch on Tuesday night there are solid foundations in place. But nobody can be under any illusion that an era is coming to an end at City.

Come Sunday, after the game against Fulham, De Bruyne will join the cast of beloved stars that have done so much for this club, another legend of the modern era that we will look back on in the future and tell our children that we were lucky to have seen in the flesh.

How privileged a position that must be, and yet how painful it must feel right now.

(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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