Jose Mourinho claims a Manchester United return for Cristiano Ronaldo was “never on the table”.

Ending his medal-laden spell at Real Madrid, the 33-year-old joined Juventus over the summer.

Ronaldo has been in the Spanish capital since leaving Old Trafford in 2009 and it has been reported that Mourinho urged United not to re-sign the forward.

The pair worked together at Real Madrid and will come head-to-head in this season’s Champions League group stage.

“Juventus is one of the teams in Europe that invested to win the Champions League because they don’t need to invest to win the Scudetto,” Mourinho said after the 2-0 win at Burnley. “They win the Scudetto for six or seven years.

“The objective is clearly to win the Champions League, which they were close twice when they reached the final, so they are a top team in Europe that made one of the biggest spending – I think after Liverpool it must be them.

“Fantastic players – Cristiano, (Emre) Can and (Leonardo) Bonucci. Absolutely top.

“But they are going to have two very difficult matches against us.

“Cristiano was never on my table to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Cristiano to come to us. It was never on the table.”