Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has ruled out a return to the club for Jose Mourinho, insisting he is happy to persevere with current manager Rafael Benítez.
Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea on Thursday after a dismal start to the season which has seen the club hover above the relegation zone.
Asked whether he might consider reappointing the 52-year-old, who spent three tempestuous seasons at the Santiago Bernabéu between 2010 and 2013, Perez said he was not thinking beyond the present incumbent.
“No one knows the future but right now no, because we have Rafa Benítez and we are not thinking beyond Rafa,” he told the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
“We hired Benítez to sort out a specific problem. He was the right man among the many possibilities that we had. And if we believed that he was the right man at the start of the season we can’t three months later say he is not.
“We have a great coach. Rafa is the person that we have chosen and we have to let him work with the collaboration of all the players. I talk to the players and it is not true that they do not get on with him.”
Asked whether he had had happy memories of Mourinho’s spell at the club, Pérez added: “I have good memories of Mourinho. He raised our competitive level.
“When Mourinho came we had been knocked out for six straight seasons in the round of 16 of the Champions League and we were 13th in the Uefa rankings, and when he left we were number one and we made it to three consecutive semi-finals always losing in unlucky circumstances.
“He gave us a competitive boost. But all coaches come and they all have to go. [Vicente] Del Bosque, Mourinho. The job wears them out and you need to change.
