Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois emphatically denied a Spanish report that he's dreading the possibility of the club appointing either Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte as manager.
According to the report on Friday from El Pais' Diego Torres, Courtois would be upset if either of his former Chelsea managers is brought in to replace under-fire Julen Lopetegui.
Per Torres' account, when Courtois heard the rumors that Mourinho and Conte are being considered as the top two candidates, he exclaimed, as translated by FourFourTwo: "I can't believe it. I'm the only one here who has worked with Conte and Mourinho. I left London so as not to go through something like that again and now it turns out that Conte is coming, and, if not him, Mourinho."
However, Courtois, who won the Premier League title under both coaches at Stamford Bridge, issued an unequivocal denial on his Twitter account later Friday:
The goalkeeper wrote, as translated by ESPN's Adriana Garcia: "I want to categorically deny the information published today in El Pais regarding me. It includes lies that harm me as a professional and I expect a rectification as I ponder taking legal action."
Speculation - both during and after the respective tenures of Mourinho and Conte at Chelsea - suggested Courtois didn't always see eye to eye with either manager. And under Conte last season, he made a public push to secure a move to Madrid, which he ultimately completed after failing to report to training under new Blues boss Maurizio Sarri.