With their league campaign stuttering badly, Mourinho is instead now focusing on trying to win the club's 10th European crown.

“I have always stated that my goal is to win a third Champions League with three teams,” he told Tuttosport.

“I've won the competition with Porto and Inter. Nobody has managed that before and for Real Madrid it would be their 10th European Cup.

“In the last two months the team has lost a little of everything. After Saturday's loss to Malaga I was thinking long and hard about my situation. But I am too young to give up.”