Jose Mourinho has remained coy on the possibility of bringing Gareth Bale back to Tottenham Hotspur.
Bale appears to be moving closer to a sensational move back to North London this summer, with agent Jonathan Barnett admitting that talks have already taken place and that a move is 'close'.
Speaking ahead of his side's Premier League clash with Lokomotiv Plovdiv this week, the Welshman's future was understandably a big topic of discussion, although Mourinho is clearly keen to keep his cards close to his chest.
Here's everything he had to say about alleged interest in the winger.
Do you have any updates on transfers? There's been a lot of reports around Gareth Bale potentially coming back to the club
Gareth Bale is a Real Madrid player and I don't talk about players from other clubs.
Can you confirm if talks have taken place?
No. It's not my job to have contact with agents and I don't want to comment.
Would you like Bale?
I don’t comment on hypothetical stuff. Again, I'm not going to comment on Gareth Bale. He's a Real Madrid player and I have to respect that.
He's a player you've always admired though. You tried to sign him for Man United
Even before that. I tried to sign him during my time at Real Madrid. It was not possible to do during my time there. But the president followed my instinct and knowledge and the season I left, he brought Gareth to the club. That's no secret and I think even Gareth knows that.
But I'm not going to speak about him any more, because he's a Real Madrid player.
You've got a reputation for signing players at the twilight of their careers (Zlatan, Eto'o and Drogba when he came back to Chelsea). What does a player like that bring?
It's a clever question, but I don't have a clever answer for you. So, like I taught Ted Lasso, it's better not to speak.
