Real Madrid "has always been more courted than Julia Roberts", said coach Santiago Solari on Monday about rumours of a possible return of Jose Mourinho.
Solari took over earlier this season and has a contract until 2021, but has just lost two Clasicos at home. He was speaking at a press conference ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Ajax at the Bernabeu in the Champions League, a competition Real have won the last three years and is the club's only hope of a trophy this season.
Mourinho managed Real for three stormy seasons from 2010 to 2013. Over the weekend he was a guest pundit on Qatar-based beIN Sport where he analysed Real's latest loss to Barcelona.
"Return to a club that I have been before?" said Mourinho, who had two stints at Chelsea and was fired by Manchester United in December.
"If I think the right club, the right structure, the right ambitions, I will have no problem at all."
"You should ask her."
"That does not mean we're happy with what's happening."
- 'Giving Real up for dead' -
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"In the world of Real Madrid, there is always talk about these things, we cannot prevent it."
"In 2015 we won nothing. People said Real were dead, but you know what happened next. We started winning again. We have to trust ourselves."
"We want to be in the quarter-finals."
"Cristiano scored 50 goals and you cannot find someone today who will score so many."
Modric said he had hoped "two or three players would score 15, 20 or 10 goals and that has not happened and I think it's our biggest problem this year."
The club, Modric said, "has put faith in other players like Gareth (Bale), (Marco) Asensio and Karim (Benzema)."
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