Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton has spoken out against the “vulgar” deal which looks set to take Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid from Old Trafford.
The Portugal winger is poised to complete a move to the Bernabeu after United accepted a world-record offer of €93million from the Spanish outfit earlier this month.
The deal eclipses the €68million Madrid president Florentino Perez recently paid to land Brazil star Kaka from AC Milan, and Charlton concedes the distorted prices in the transfer market this summer are difficult to comprehend.
Speaking at a news conference in China where United signed a multi-million pound partnership deal with Chinese digital technology firm aigo, Charlton said: “It’s a lot of money, it’s crazy really.
“If you want to be in the race, you have to pay the price. It seems sometimes a little bit vulgar. But, nevertheless, that is business, I’m afraid.
“We have responsibilities to our company and to all the fans that support Manchester United, and it was decided that Ronaldo could go.
“But it’s a little bit soul-searching, you never know if you’ve made the right decision until the start of the season.”
The 71-year-old club director, who scored 249 goals in 758 appearances for United, is happy for the Premier League champions to benefit from the cash injection provided by the deal, but is still to be convinced that the deal is in Ronaldo’s best interests.
“It’s an enormous amount,” he continued. “We will make sure we will use it properly and our club will be better for it.
“Ronaldo is a great player. He’s been with us for five or six years and in that time he has improved beyond all recognition.
“I suppose, in time, he will reflect and say that the best time he ever had in football was when he was at Manchester United. It was better for him and it was fantastic for the club.
“But we have no divine rights, we talked him out of it for one year but he’s gone and we move on.
“Ronaldo leaves us because as a young boy he always dreamt about playing for Real Madrid, so if he leaves us, it’s with our blessing.”
Charlton refused to be drawn on who Alex Ferguson should now target as Ronaldo’s replacement, with the likes of Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery and Lyon’s Karim Benzema reportedly in the frame.
“Instead of him? I’ll have to leave that to Alex Ferguson,” he said. “He is a great judge of a player, he’s very brave with his decisions, he’s very decisive and that’s why he has been a great success.
“Who the players will be I don’t know, but they will be worthy of putting on the shirt for Manchester United.”
