Kevin de Bruyne had a way of shrugging off the disappointment. Saturday could have finished with him lifting the FA Cup as Manchester City captain, a final trophy to add to a vast collection. “Yeah, okay. I could have won 20, I have 19 now,” he said. “It's alright, this doesn't change anything that's happened in the past 10 years. Of course I want to win, but I wanted to win last year also. There's things that happen and it's been amazing, so what can I say? It's mostly been really, really good moments, so that's life.”
That phlegmatic approach extended to the manner of his departure. City didn’t offer their greatest player a new contract, even if the last few weeks have shown he remains an astonishingly good passer of the ball, even if the tributes have flowed from Pep Guardiola and his teammates and even, before Saturday’s defeat to Crystal Palace, from the Prince of Wales. “The decision is what it is,” reflected De Bruyne. “Obviously it's not something that was nice at the moment, but I accept it and I move on. It's not the end of life.”
