Zinedine Zidane's return to Real Madrid hasn't quite reached the heights of his first three-year spell in charge.

Real were far from impressive over the latter half of last season and a summer of big spending was supposed to fix things.

But while Real are second in La Liga, they have been far from impressive.

Performances have been poor and results haven't been coming consistently -  Real have only won one of their three Champions League games, for one thing.

The pressure is on Zidane to get things back on track as soon as possible or he could soon suffer the same fate as Julien Lopetegui and Santiago Solari before him.

That's led to Jose Mourinho being linked with a return to the Santiago Bernabeu, six years after his exit from the club.

Although, according to Sport, that may not be as likely as it seems.

Sport claim that president Florentino Perez has been linking Mourinho's name to the press in order to scare players into performing.

He knows that key members of the dressing room definitely do not want him back at the club and believes that they'll be inspired to keep him away.

The actual first-choice replacement is Massimiliano Allegri, apparently.

Mourinho did manage to win La Liga against a supreme Barcelona side back in 2012 but things ended badly.

The Portuguese fell out with half the dressing room and divided the supporters, resulting in a predictable departure.

The likes of Sergio Ramos and Marcelo, now key leaders at the club, were happy to see the back of him.

Perez is banking on their desire to keep Mourinho away, hoping it'll help boost performances under Zidane.

Although, if it really has come to this, things are pretty bad and it's difficult to see how such a tactic could solve the issues at the club.