De Bruyne: Mourinho believes in me

Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has insisted new manager Jose Mourinho has faith in his abilities.

The 22-year-old originally moved to Stamford Bridge from Genk in January 2012, but was loaned back to the Belgian club for the remainder of the season before spending the entire 2012-13 campaign with Werder Bremen.

De Bruyne will finally get the chance to ply his trade in the Premier League next term, however, after Mourinho declared that he and fellow Belgian Romelu Lukaku will not be loaned out again.

And the Belgium international has welcomed the backing of the returning Portuguese boss.

“The manager said he has a lot of confidence and brought me back because he believes in me,” he told the club’s official website.

“I have to show that on the pitch but it’s nice when the trainer has confidence in you. I have to work hard and see what happens in pre-season.

“After training you can have a good laugh but in the session he likes discipline and that everybody is working hard on the field.

“The tour of Asia will be difficult for us, with the heat and the humidity, but we will see what happens and we just have to prepare ourselves well for the season.

“We have a lot of young players and it will be good to go on tour and stay together, and get to know each other and other places. It is always fun.”

De Bruyne went on to discuss the benefits of his time with Werder Bremen, despite the club struggling in the Bundesliga for long spells of 2012-13.

“We had a difficult season with a lot of really young players who had almost no experience in the league, so it’s very difficult,” he said.

“But I felt I had a good season and played a lot of minutes, and also with the national team which was very important for me, I think I managed to have a good year and managed not to have my own injuries, so I was very happy.

“The Bundesliga is a strong competition. You can compare it to the Premier League, which is probably more physical, it’s a lot of running, but every team tries to play good football and always goes for the win.”