We had a sit down with our sports writer, Rich Fay, about the news that Kevin De Bruyne was stepping away from Manchester City after a period that saw him enshrine himself as one of the best Premier League players of all time.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World. My name's Theo Thyssen-Betz and today we're joined by Rich Faye, one of our football writers,
00:05who's going to talk to us a little bit about Kevin De Bruyne's announcement that he made last week that he was moving on from Manchester City.
00:11Rich, it was big news. Obviously, Manchester City fans have a lot of great memories from De Bruyne.
00:16Do you think that this announcement sort of came out of the blue or was it something that people were expecting?
00:20I think it was an announcement we expected, but even when it happened, it was still a shock because it was Kevin De Bruyne leaving the Premier League
00:26and it raises those questions. How good was he? How good is he? How does City continue without him?
00:32But the fact of the matter is that they kind of have dealt without him for the best part of maybe two years already.
00:36You know, he's been hampered by injuries. He's not the talent he once was.
00:40And it did become clear that when his contract expires in the season, he would be leaving City.
00:45Yeah, it's a sad time for the Premier League. He's one of the best ever players, I think.
00:48And, you know, it's a time for reflection, really. It's nice that he's done it before the end of the season.
00:52It means that we kind of get this procession now. We get a month or two to enjoy him before he goes without him just sort of leaving and then saying goodbye.
00:59Awesome. And obviously he's sort of defined an era of the Premier League.
01:03Now, where does he rank in terms of all-time greats, whether in midfield or just as players in general?
01:09I think he's right up there. I really do. It's one of those that has the sort of fandom behind it where, you know, Liverpool fans will say Gerrard,
01:16United fans will say Scholes, Chelsea fans will say Lampard.
01:18But as a neutral in all this, I think De Bruyne is right up there with the very best.
01:22It's the amount of games, it's the goals, it's the assists, the level he's done it at and the consistency as well.
01:27I think he is arguably, for me, the greatest ever Premier League midfielder and probably sort of the top five Premier League players of all time.
01:33Awesome. Well, thank you very much, Rich. That's all for now.
01:36So as the City prepares to say goodbye to one of its all-time greats, we've got to say thank you to Kevin De Bruyne.
01:42Thank you for watching and we'll see you next time.