Jose Mourinho will not commit to Real Madrid beyond season

Pa
Friday 21 January 2011 11:43 GMT
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Mourinho has apparently fall out with the club's director general Jorge Valdano
Mourinho has apparently fall out with the club's director general Jorge Valdano (GETTY IMAGES)

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Jose Mourinho has refused to commit his future to Real Madrid beyond the end of this season.

With widespread reports of a rift with the club's director general Jorge Valdano driving speculation that Mourinho could cut short his stay at the Bernabeu, Mourinho said he would wait until the summer to make a decision.

"The world is full of rumours, but they're not all true," he said after Real Madrid's 1-0 Copa del Rey win over rivals Atletico Madrid.

"Regarding my future, we'll see what happens at the end of the season. Contracts aren't the most important thing in football. If all the parties are happy at the end of a campaign, they remain together. If they aren't, they don't."

Before the match at the Bernabeu, Valdano had again moved to end reports of a disagreement, something Mourinho would not do.

"There are no problems between Mourinho and I," Valdano said.

"He is our coach, the man who must lead us to triumph, and the team is proving to be very competitive under him. It's all about being better each season and we are better now than we were in the previous campaign. We expect to keep this up."

Mourinho has been keen to bring in an extra striker as cover for the injured Gonzalo Higuain, but so far the club hierarchy have resisted entering the January transfer market.

One set of fans who would seem to be happy to see Mourinho go are the Atletico fans, who barracked the Portuguese coach throughout last night's games with chants that included "Mourinho die".

But the coach insisted this did not bother him.

"I have no problems with the crowd's chants against me," he said. "Atletico have a great fan base. They packed the stadium despite the 3-1 score of the first leg and the cold weather.

"They hoped to see an intense match and they nevertheless stayed until the end after (Cristiano) Ronaldo's goal. They are a fantastic crowd that deserves all my respect."

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