MADRID, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho this Saturday denied he was planning to leave the club either during or at the end of the current season.
Real Madrid's poor recent form has seen them slip to 16 points behind FC Barcelona in the BBVA Primera Liga and led to rumors of a breakdown in relations with Mourinho and club President, Florentino Perez as well as with various of the Spanish players in the squad.
Those rumors gathered strength with his decision to leave Spain international keeper Iker Casillas on the sub's bench for his side's 3-2 defeat away to Malaga in the last game of 2012.
However, speaking in an interview with an Italian newspaper "Tutti Sport", the Real Madrid coach said he had no plans to leave the club.
"I am staying in Madrid and I want to win my third Champions League. The defeat in Malaga led to a deep reflection about my future in Real Madrid, but I spent Christmas in Portugal with my family and we came to a conclusion: football changes, it changes and it changes virtually every day, every minute and every second, but there is one thing that never changes and that is that the coach makes the team," said Mourinho.
When asked about whether or not he would resign from Madrid, he decided to use a phrase from the coach of Manchester United, a club he has been tipped to coach in the future.
"I am going to reply using some words of Sir Alex Ferguson: 'I am too old to give up,' well I am too young to give up. My aim is to win the Champions League with three different clubs: Real Madrid, after having done it with Porto and Inter Milan, something that nobody has done. Also it would be the tenth Champions League for Real Madrid and we'd be the only team to have got into double figures," continued the Madrid coach, whose side will play Manchester United in the last 16 in Europe.
"It is going to be a thrilling challenge, we know we can qualify, but also that they could knock us out. It is going to be fantastic and any coach would want to play a tie like that," said Mourinho.