Jose Mourinho: Chelsea were right to get rid of 'crying' Kevin De Bruyne

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insists he has no regrets in selling Kevin De Bruyne after he moved to Wolfsburg last year for £16.7 million.

The Belgian midfielder is reportedly on the verge of a £50.4-million move to title rivals Manchester City.

"With De Bruyne, if you have a player knocking on your door and crying every day he wants to leave, you have to make a decision," Mourinho said at a news conference.

De Bruyne had a fantastic debut season in the Bundesliga. He was voted the league's player of the year as he made 20 assists, eight more than his nearest competitor Zlatko Junuzovic of Werder Bremen.

Mourinho claims that Chelsea would have got less for the 24-year-old if they would have held onto him an extra year. De Bruyne had lacked motivation due to a lack of first team opportunity, and that wouldn't have changed in Chelsea's title-winning campaign.

"If he was at Chelsea and not at Wolfsburg, he wouldn't have reached this level. It was like a wall, a block. He was not ready to compete. He was an upset kid, training very bad," Mourinho said.

He also took the opportunity to criticise another former player's work on the practice field.

"(De Bruyne) always said he had trained well in his life, but he needs motivation to train well by playing every game. Andre Schurrle was a bit the same," he said.

According to Mourinho, the sales of De Bruyne and Schurrle helped pave the way for star player Eden Hazard.

"If you think (De Bruyne's sale) is my mistake, then it's my mistake that Eden Hazard is worth more than £100 million," he said.