Sky Sports Pundit’s comments about Kevin De Bruyne joining Manchester City have aged so, so badly

It was perhaps his best performance in a City shirt and there is plenty to choose from since his arrival from Wolfsburg in 2015.

Two men who weren’t quite sure about the Belgian international’s return to Premier League football were Thompson and Merson.

De Bruyne’s first spell in England left him disappointed with Chelsea. That stigma still existed for the Sky Sports duo, who didn’t understand why City broke their transfer record to secure their signing.

“The world is going crazy,” Thompson said in an episode of Soccer Saturday. “The amount of money they’re paying for this kid is absolutely crazy! He’s a good player, but is he a great player?”

Jeff Stelling asked Merson if then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was right to let ‘KDB’ leave for the Bundesliga a year earlier, for a much smaller sum of £18m.

Merson replied: “I don’t think so. I don’t think he did that at Chelsea.

“I don’t think he had much of a chance but he didn’t seem to be part of the Chelsea way at the time. I think it was right for him to go. If you’re buying someone for eight million and selling them for a profit of £10 million , is a no-brainer for me.

‘There are some players that you look at and think so’… I just don’t see that, I just don’t see £50m for that player. I don’t really see that.

“And this was someone who was at England’s top club Chelsea playing there and it didn’t work out.

“He’s played here before, on a top team with top players. Honestly, Jeff, I thought it was Lira, I thought.”

The 30-year-old opened the scoring in Molineux with a beautiful first-time finish after receiving a deep pass from Bernardo Silva.

Wolves retaliated with Leander Dendoncker three minutes later, before De Bruyne scored his second in the 16th minute.

He would complete his hat-trick four minutes later with an absolute shot that left goalkeeper José Sa defenseless.

Not made there, De Bruyne would score on the hour mark to make eight goals in eight games.

Raheem Sterling closed the scoring with six minutes to go as City returned to the top of the league, ahead of Liverpool with two games remaining.