Jose Mourinho.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADRID, Spain -- Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has warned his team's supporters who are hoping he will help end its two-season title drought that they shouldn't expect any miracles, saying "I'm a coach -- I'm not Harry Potter."

Madrid opened its Spanish league campaign last weekend with a scoreless draw at Mallorca as title favourite and fierce rival Barcelona started with a 3-0 win at Racing Santander.

"At FC Porto and Inter Milan, I also started with a draw. At Porto, I went on to win four titles. And at Inter, I won two in the first season and three in the second. It's not how you start -- it's how you finish," Mourinho said in Wednesday's edition of newspaper AS. "The first games are always very strange."

"I'm a coach -- I'm not Harry Potter. He's a magician, but in reality magic doesn't exist. Magic is fictitious and I live in football, which is real," said Mourinho, who once described himself as The Special One while at Chelsea.

Mourinho said international breaks haven't allowed him to train enough with a full team, while new German international signings Mesut Oezil and Sami Khedira have proven hard to work into the team as they spoke no Spanish and little English.

The team also carried a number of injuries into the season, Mourinho said, including playmaker Kaka. Cristiano Ronaldo was hurt against Mallorca and will be out for up to three weeks.

While pleased with his players' defensive effort against Mallorca, Mourinho said it will take a lot of work to supplant Barcelona, which has captured the league two years running since Madrid won in 2008 for its last title.

"We lack so much, so much," Mourinho said. "We could have continued playing as we did last year with the same structure we had. That would have been an easier way to start the season, but that would have brought a misleading result. That's not the direction I want to go in. Not at all."

A year after spending more than 250 million euros (C$339 million) on superstar players like Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso, Madrid decided to invest in Mourinho after having bowed out of the Champions League early for the past six years as it seeks its 10th title.

Mourinho said he is the perfect person for that task.

"My profile is a lot different to what Madrid has had (as coach) over the past years. If things go badly here and I have to leave, I'll have another club to go to the next day," Mourinho said. "And it won't be the Gava or Palmeiras of my city -- I'll have one of the world's biggest clubs waiting for me again.

"That stability allows me to say I'm the ideal person to be at Madrid because I don't fear anybody. Madrid needs stability and I'm here to give it to it."