Cape Town - Jose
Mourinho has assured fans that David De Gea will not be joining Real
Madrid this season and also rubbished the notion that the La Liga
champions would depart with Gareth Bale.
Ahead of the European giants' International Champions Cup encounter on Sunday, the Red Devils manager spoke about their rivals' long-running courtship of the Spain international keeper, saying that no deal is on the horizon and praising the player's forthrightness in the matter.
"I can guarantee that he’s not going this season, that I can," Mourinho told reporters. "And my feeling is that it will be very difficult for him to go. It will be very difficult for him to go because he’s a very honest boy, very straight.
"He gets, like, he was contacted for a long time, the club is closed," he continued. "Then we open because I always have this feeling of when a player has a desire to go I don’t like to stop players to go because in the end, you don’t get from them what you expect if they want to move and they don’t move.
"So we open it and then they decide to close and I don’t think the feeling for him is very, very good. I see him really happy and focused and working better than ever, so for me 100% he stays with us," the former Los Blancos boss added.
He went on to admit that his club would not consider a move for star forward Gareth Bale, whom he believes is happy at the Bernabeu.
"No, because you have contacts, you have feelings, you understand things," he said. "It seems to me that Bale likes Madrid, likes the challenge, likes the situation.
"He’s in a club in a very good situation now. I never felt the desire from him to leave, so why lose time and energy on that?"