Jose Mourinho has told Vinicius Junior should have left Real Madrid in the summer amid interest from Arsenal in order to play football where he’s “respected”.

Vinicius was handed a four-match ban for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair during Madrid’s 1-0 win over Villarreal last weekend.

The committee said the Brazilian had received a two-game ban for “violent conduct, without the possibility of playing the ball” and the two additional games for arguing with the referee “with an aggressive attitude and having to be restrained by his teammates.”

After Madrid’s extraordinary 4-3 win over Roma in the Champions League on Wednesday, in which they scored in the 83rd, 85th and 90th minute to turn the game on its head, Mourinho questioned whether the timing of the suspension announcement just hours before a key European game was appropriate and suggested that the situation raised wider concerns.

He said: “You’re the journalist, but may I ask you a question? Do you think it’s normal for a player from a Spanish team to find out he’s been banned for four matches before the match even takes place?

“This is turning into what we say in Portuguese: ‘a cat hiding with its tail sticking out’, and it seems to me that the cat isn’t hiding anymore – they’re doing things without any shame.

“Do you want to ‘take down’ a player from a Spanish team? The cat is no longer hidden.”

And now Mourinho claims he would have left Real Madrid in the summer if he was in the Brazilian superstar’s position.

Arsenal were most heavily linked with Vinicius before he signed a new six-year deal with Los Blancos.

“If I were (Vinicius), in his place, I probably wouldn’t be here,” he told the media ahead of Madrid’s LaLiga clash against Sevilla.

“Last summer I would have forced my exit to a league, to a country, to clubs and stadiums where they’d respect him.

“But because he’s a Madrid fan, he has love for the club and the city, he believes things can always improve, he renewed, and he’ll keep that smile.

“I think there’s nothing or no-one that can take that away, that joy for living and working. He’s a great boy.”

When clarifying what he said, Mourinho added: “When he signed that contract, he signed it because Madrid is his home, and Real Madrid is his home. He’s one of the main sources of joy in that dressing room.

“What I said before was that I doubt I’d be able – as a player with lots of options – I doubt whether I’d be able to have his psychological strength, to hold on.”