Varane was asking for a contract that RM were not willing to give him so they sold him for good money. Casemiro was another player that they had already replaced with big money signings and could get really good money for.
You're just looking for excuses now. So then Madrid are not the be all end all in football if their two best players want to leave, regardless of your reasoning for them wanting to leave? And who have they replaced Casemiro with? Camavinga? Please, give me a break.
As to players RM signed who United wanted:
Bale
Kroos
Modric
Benzema
I'm sure there are plenty more. You are just sticking your head in the sand if you think RM haven't been a bigger draw than United for most players in the world for a very long time.
Bale is a funny one. He did ditch us for Madrid, but prior to SAF deciding to retire he said he was sure he was going to get Ronaldo and Bale and from what I remember per his words he got a 'yes' from Ronaldo. I'm not really in to the dealings around the time, but while that one is indeed true, we had Moyes and not SAF as a manager when we tried to go at him.
Modric wanted to sign for United, as per Rio. What happened is that Gill went for Kagawa since he was far cheaper than Modric would have cost us and then Modric went to Madrid.
Kroos was a done deal, contract and everything, until LVG pulled the plug one that one for some godforsaken reason.
We did try to sign Benzema, but SAF wasn't willing to meet the price Lyon was asking for him. At the time, if you remember, we were still on the "no value in the market phase" that made us miss on Hazard, as well. You think by your logic Chelsea are more appealing than us because they threw more money at the table?
So, we clearly were buying all the best players in the world around that time. Who did we buy? Who were we buying from outside England who were world class before they arrived? On the topic of Ronaldo, he wanted to go to RM. Not because of wages, but because it was RM.
As to saying we have to pay more than RM on wages, thats a comment on the current status quo. I know very little about wages from 15 years ago.
Nistelrooy, Veron, Anderson, Stam, Barthez, etc. Also, of course our main breeding ground for talent would be England. That's like saying "who did Real Madrid buy that was already world class who wasn't from Spain?". Sure, you're gonna hit me with Zidane now, but there was not that many.
As far as Ronaldo goes, I mean that's just nonsense. Why didn't Ronaldo take a paycut or even get the same pay if it was just because of RM? Why did he need such a gargantuan contract if it was just the privilege of playing for Madrid? That same Ronaldo was crying about going to Barcelona after the World Cup fiasco with Rooney and the fans booing him. Barcelona, the archrival of Madrid who at that point had a far less impressive resume than United... Evidently he didn't really care all that much about Madrid itself.