Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho refuses to rule out selling David de Gea to Real Madrid

Speaking ahead of United's match against Watford, Mourinho stopped short of denying a potential summer transfer and admitted that he remains 'big friends' with the Bernabeu club's hierarchy

Mourinho retains close links with Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho has refused to rule out the potential sale of goalkeeper David de Gea to Real Madrid, instead claiming that he is “big friends” with the Bernabeu club's hierarchy, adding that any potential transfer dealings between the two clubs will be “direct” and not conducted “through the press”.

As the Independent revealed on Thursday, Real are poised to return for De Gea in the summer and have already made tentative contact with his entourage.

And according to the Madrid-based sports daily Marca — which boasts notoriously high-placed sources at the La Liga giants — De Gea has a €65 million (£55.3m) release clause in his contract, which club president Florentino Pérez is thought to be willing to activate.

When quizzed on the rumours during his weekly press conference, Mourinho notably stopped short of denying a potential summer transfer saga, instead admitting that he retains close links with Perez and his director general, Jose Angel Sanchez.

“With Mr Perez and his right arm Jose Angel Sanchez, they are some of the people in football about whom I can say: I did not work for them and then it is over,” Mourinho admitted.

“I can say that we are friends forever, big friends. I like them a lot. And friends speak, friends are open, friends are honest.”

Mourinho has said that he is "friends forever ... big friends" with Madrid president Perez (Getty Images)

Mourinho, whose side entertain 10^th-place Watford at Old Trafford on Saturday, then confirmed that any transfer dealings between the two clubs would be “direct”.

“So if at the end of the season I want one of their players or they want one of our players, we will not do it through the press," Mourinho said. "It is not through the press that we are going to exchange messages.

“We will be very direct. So they are one of the clubs that I am not worried about at all.”

When quizzed more directly about De Gea’s future at Old Trafford, Mourinho was keen to stress that he maintains a strong relationship with the 26-year old.

“The only thing that is real is that he is my player, I am happy with him I know that he is happy with me and there is nothing else absolutely nothing else,” Mourinho added.

“I have nothing to say because I am not going to speak about hypothetical things.”

De Gea has been linked with a move to the Bernabeu since 2015, when the two clubs successfully negotiated a deal for the Spanish international only for the transfer to collapse in the closing hours of the summer transfer window.

"The future, nobody knows," De Gea told Spanish sports daily AS (Getty Images)

Speculation has continued ever since and has intensified in recent weeks, with De Gea himself appearing to hint at a possible move in a pointedly non-committal interview with Spanish newspaper AS this week.

"The future, nobody knows. The future is the future,” De Gea said.

“But I'm very happy here, it's a great club. In England, football is enjoyed a lot.

"I’m not going to talk about [Real Madrid]. I‘m not going to talk about that subject now. I just have to keep focused on my club."

Mourinho meanwhile told reporters that he "knows exactly the players I want" ahead of the summer transfer window, and that he would remain pragmatic as his rebuilding project continues.

“I know the players I want,” he said. “Of course at the start it is about the quality of the players we want but sooner or later it has to end in the players we want.

“I try always to be objective and not to participate in trying to bring in players that are impossible.

“I am not going to tell Mr. Woodward and Mr.Glazer ‘bring me Messi’. Do not spend the time until 31st August… so I am always objective.

“I know exactly what I want. I know what I want is possible.”