The Real Madrid players Sergio Ramos and the captain Iker Casillas have confirmed in a statement that they did not demand the exit of the manager José Mourinho in order to stay at the club. There have been a lot of reports in Spain that the two Spanish players requested the Real Madrid president Florentino Perez that he should sack the manager Mourinho or they would be handing transfer requests in the summer. Perez immediately confirmed that he did have a meeting with the two players, but he suggested that there was no truth in the newspaper reports that they demanded Mourinho’s exit.

The former Chelsea and the Inter Milan manager has had a terrible spell at the club apart from a few success. The team managed to win the league title for the first time in three seasons last year, but they have been extremely poor in this season. It has been largely due to several in-house fighting involving the manager and the players. The Portuguese manager has been unable to bring together all the egos within the team. He recently dropped the captain Iker Casillas from the starting line-up, which has led to even more trouble within the club.

“We want to show our support for the character of our coach Jose Mourinho. The two captains of Real Madrid want to communicate the following: That the meeting held on Tuesday with the president and CEO of the club never raised any ultimatum from us regarding the character of our coach. We want to show our support for the character of our coach, Jose Mourinho, to whom we owe the greatest respect,” said a statement by the two players on the official website of the club. Madrid have fallen 15 points behind archrivals Barcelona in the table after a poor first half of the season.