Fenerbahce coach Jose Mourinho has said he expects to remain at the club next season.
The Portuguese coach, who joined the Turkish club on a two-year contract last summer, had remained coy about his future in recent weeks.
But, speaking after his side’s 4-2 league loss at Hatayspor on Monday, Mourinho said: “If you ask me if I’m going to be here next season, I refer to the last [Fenerbahce] president’s appearance on TV a couple of weeks ago, where the president said that he wants me to stay and he is counting on me to stay for the next season.
“That is public. That’s it. I think he was clear. If anything changes from that day, I was not told. I can confirm that these words were exactly the same words that I was told when we met. So that for me is a very clear situation.”
Fenerbahce president Ali Koç said he wanted Mourinho to continue “for stability” while also revealing that the former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager had received a €36 million ($40.6m) offer to leave the club in the middle of the season, but had turned it down.
Mourinho, who has been very critical of Turkish referees throughout the season, has come under fire from fans over the team’s recent performances.
“The disappointment regarding these last performances, it’s painful for everybody,” Mourinho said.
“It’s only people that don’t understand what people are like, what the end of season is like. The motivation is not the same but I don’t accept that people think that players don’t care.”
Fenerbahce, who finish their the Super Lig campaign on Saturday at home to Konyaspor, secured a second place finish behind champions Galatasaray earlier this month.
Mourinho, meanwhile, expects another challenging summer as his team will have to go through the qualifying rounds to play in the Champions League group stages.
“I’ve coached in two European finals,” Mourinho said.
“In the past seven years, I have coached more European finals than the history of Turkish football together. We tried to qualify for Champions League with Fenerbahce last summer. We lost that possibility with a penalty from Lille in the 120th minute.
“You ask me if I prefer to play the Champions League rather than the Europa League, Conference League, yes, but not just me, every club, every coach, every player. Next summer we have again qualification for Champions League.
“We have to prepare ourselves the best we can.”
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