Kevin De Bruyne: 'I don't care that we didn't get Lionel Messi' | OneFootball

Of course, the biggest story of the summer was Lionel Messi and his near-arrival at Manchester City.

At the end of the day, Messi admitted he was just about handcuffed without a lawsuit and will see out the final year of his contract at Barcelona.

Though City were agonisingly close to getting one of the best players of all-time, De Bruyne insists that Messi’s dream arrival is now removed from his memory bank.

‘To be honest, I didn’t really think about it,” De Bruyne told the Daily Mail. “If it could have happened, it would have happened.

“If you can get Messi to your team you are always going to do it. I can see it from a playing perspective and especially as a club.

“Business wise, the amount of sponsors and money it would have attracted would have been huge.

“Even if you would have paid him a load of money, in a certain way you would get it all back. So I could understand the decision (to try) in that respect.

“I really don’t care,” he reiterated. “I really don’t. If he would have come it would have helped us because, for me, he has been the best player of all time.

“But I am never looking at what players may come and what may happen, you know.

“You play with the players you have and I think we have a pretty good team in that respect. It would be stupid of me to assume what would happen if a certain player came.

“It happens in football all the time. People are supposed to come and eventually they don’t.

“I was also pretty occupied at the time anyway (with the birth of his third child).”

De Bruyne and Manchester City have the weekend off and will get back to action next Monday when they travel to face Wolves.