Mourinho expects Premier League return

Soccer: Jose Mourinho has confirmed he expects to return to England when he leaves Real Madrid

Soccer: Jose Mourinho has confirmed he expects to return to England when he leaves Real Madrid. Mourinho has fallen out of favour with the Madrid media and, it is rumoured, many of his senior players.

The former Chelsea boss played down the depth of his so-called crisis. However, ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League encounter with Manchester United at the Bernabeu Stadium, Mourinho said a return to England was on the agenda.

"Are you worried with my crisis? I am not," he said. "But I will go back to England after Real Madrid. We will see (when that is). I love everything (about England). England will be my next step."

Mourinho has been heavily linked with Manchester City and Chelsea recently.

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It has also been felt he would be of interest to Manchester United, even though club ambassador Peter Schmeichel has said the former Porto coach is not under consideration.

Mourinho doesn't see himself being installed at Old Trafford either, mainly because he expects Ferguson to continue for a good while yet.

"No," he said, when asked if he could replace Ferguson. "I don't believe so. I think we have to end our career at the same time. Him at 90 and me at 70."

Although it didn’t look it, Mourinho insists he is still enjoying his work and midfielder Michael Essien claimed the manager always has a smile on his face.

However, there is no escaping his fractious relationship with those who follow Madrid’s fortunes so closely, as he pointed out when asked to comment on the Spanish newspaper depiction of Wayne Rooney as a “hooligan” this morning.

“I didn’t read it,” said Mourinho. “I don’t know if it was written in that context, calling him a hooligan, or completely different. But if I can say one thing on behalf of Rooney, I was called worse than that, week by week.”