Despite continuous rumours about the future of star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, Wolfsburg manager Dieter Hecking kept him in the starting line-up for the recent game against Cologne.

It could have been one of the reasons for the mediocre performance of the team. They were only saved by the goal from Nicklas Bendtner. The Danish international scored this vital equaliser that keeps Wolfsburg in touch with the top of the table. After the game,Hecking admitted that the performance of the team was not helped by the situation surrounding De Bruyne, who is linked with a massive £ 50 million move to Manchester City.

However, the club have been doing everything within their powers to persuade the Belgian International to stay at Wolfsburg. It will be extremely difficult since City are believed to have offered a massive £ 220,000 per week contract for the player. This will represent a threefold increased on his current wages and it will be extremely hard to turn down by the former Chelsea midfielder. Wolfsburg stand to make a healthy profit on the player, who they purchased from Chelsea for just around £ 18 million. Last season, Kevin De Bruyne was one of the standout performers in the Bundesliga with more than 15 assists to his teammates.

“That was not a good game on our behalf. Our display over 60 minutes was uninspired and had very little to do with tempo football. That was the case for a period against Frankfurt and it was even more noticeable here today. We need to turn things around very quickly.After an hour we got a better grip on proceedings and then we got our goal. That is one of my team’s strengths. On the whole though, I am not satisfied. I don’t see how that is affecting us. You cannot blame a bad game only on one player,” said Hecking.