Mourinho plots Van Nistelrooy return

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is considering bringing Ruud Van Nistelrooy back to the club to help ease his attacking crisis.

Holland striker Van Nistelrooy, 34, left the club to join Bundesliga outfit Hamburg in January 2010 after falling down the pecking order under then-manager Manuel Pelligrini.

But with Gonzalo Higuain effectively ruled out until the end of the La Liga season, Real need attacking reinforcements.

Van Nistelrooy’s contract with Hamburg ends in the summer, and Mourinho said he would like to sign the striker in the January transfer window – but not as a replacement for Karim Benzema.

“A lot of names have been mentioned, all of them seem players that could be helpful and, if finally there is Ruud, I’d be very happy,” Mourinho said on Saturday.

“We met in the Premier League, in my first seasons (when Mourinho was manager of Chelsea and Van Nistelrooy was at Manchester United). I know him well. I know the player, I know the man and I’d be happy if it was him. But we’ll see what happens.

” I personally haven’t had any contact with either Hamburg’s coach or Hamburg’s staff to ask if he’s close or far from signing for Madrid and I don’t feel it’s correct to be talking about a player that, in a couple of hours, will be defending a shirt that is not mine. We’ll see.”

“But, at this stage, he’s a Hamburg player and we must respect the situation because, and I insist, he’s not ours.”

Mourinho also looked ahead to Real’s upcoming clash with struggling Almeria on Sunday, and is wary of the threat the desperate hosts may pose as they bid to dig themselves out of relegation trouble.

“It is a difficult match,” he said.

“They need points, they have a good team, they play good football and, in these kind of matches, these teams have nothing to lose.”

“They just give absolutely everything and they fight for a result.”

“We must go into this match thinking about this match, not the one next Thursday against Atletico Madrid. We must concentrate on this one because it is a hard one.”