Manchester City's pursuit of Kevin de Bruyne pays off

Kevin De Bruyne has revealed how Manchester City spoke to him constantly throughout their long pursuit of him last summer.

The Belgium playmaker finally joined City in a club record £54m (€67m) deal from Wolfsburg last August after months of speculation.

In public City gave little away during their lengthy negotiations for the former Chelsea player but, behind the scenes, De Bruyne was in no doubt how much the club wanted him.

De Bruyne said: “I think the thing that most gave me confidence at that particular time was that they were busy trying to contact me.

“They called every day until the day that I signed here. They pushed for me to come and for me that gave me a great sign that they were interested and that I could be important over here.”

De Bruyne quickly established himself at the Etihad Stadium and was sorely missed during a two-month lay-off with a knee injury.

He made a welcome return to action with a goal in last weekend’s thrashing of Bournemouth and followed up with a vital strike to help City secure a 2-2 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in midweek.

He said: “I’ve only been here for just over six months but the way I integrated went really well and straight away I felt really good in the team and I think you saw that from the beginning on the pitch.”

De Bruyne’s return to action has coincided with that of another forward in Samir Nasri, who ended a near six-month absence when he featured against Bournemouth.

Such was the severity of the Frenchman’s thigh injury, which required surgery, City, who host West Brom today, did not register him for their Champions League squad in the second half of the season.

Manuel Pellegrini has urged him to show fans and team-mates what they have been missing. Pellegrini said: “It was a very unlucky injury because it was in a training session without any problem. He shot a ball and he felt that something happened in his muscle, and it was very hard.”