Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho tried Friday to defuse a row caused after he told the BBC he wanted to return to England when he eventually left the Spanish club. The former Chelsea boss was criticized after telling a BBC interviewer with a laugh that he would look for a Premier League team “in a couple of years”. Spanish commentators said a club of the stature of nine-time European champion Real should be deciding when Mourinho moved on, not the Portuguese. “You don't translate ‘a couple of years' literally, it's an expression you use in the English language to mean in a few years, not exactly two,” Mourinho told the club's website (www.realmadrid.com). “It could be two, three, four, 20, or you never know,” added the 48-year-old who is in his second season at Real and has a contract that runs until 2014. “Everyone knows I enjoyed very much being in England and everyone knows England one day will have to be a natural destination for me because in my career, which I hope is 20 years long or more, one day, within a few years, I'll have to find a destination. Now is not the time to think about it because I am at Real Madrid.” Mourinho's three-year spell at Chelsea ended in 2007. He then went on to lead Inter Milan to the Champions League title in 2010, his second success in Europe's elite club competition following a 2004 triumph with Porto. He was hired by Real president Florentino Perez to end Barcelona's dominance of Spanish and European soccer and led the Madrid club to a King's Cup victory over its great rival last season. The Portuguese is seen by the media as a possible future successor to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. Mourinho also said he believed the best was still to come from his Real squad. “It would not be very clever if I was dedicating myself from the first day, giving my heart to this project, and then thinking about quitting it halfway through,” he said. “It's impossible to say how many years I will stay but what counts is the intention. “What is interesting is I am very content and enormously proud to be the coach of Real Madrid and I do not see the moment to leave and I do not want to leave,” said Mourinho. “I am 100 percent certain I will see out my contract with Real Madrid.” Real Madrid will not be looking to sign new players during the transfer window, Mourinho said. “The market is an opportunity that is open to those who need it, but we fortunately do not need it,” he said.
