I was shocked and annoyed when Ruud left. Mostly because, although I thought Saha was good, I didn't think he was that good. Also, Rooney was good but still young and Ronaldo had yet to prove he was going to be anywhere near as good as he went on to be. I was worried about where the goals would come from and I thought we'd been ripped off with the fee. Just over £10 million for one of the most consistent goal scorers of the past decade? Ridiculous! I'm not going to pretend to be one of those people who saw Fergie had moved the team on before we smashed Fulham on the opening day of 2006/07.
Beckham had annoyed me over the cut over the eye thing. Sporting it to the press. Showing everyone how much of a victim he was. I don't know if I share Sir Alex's view that his work rate had dropped significantly. He still looked well up for it when he played. His last game he bent a beautiful free kick into the Everton net. I would not have wanted him to leave but the time was right for him to leave. I think his relationship with Sir Alex had really soured and I'm not sure how long that situation could have continued. I think Beckham was one of those who had wanted Fergie to retire in 2002, and was probably quite annoyed when he changed his mind and stayed on.
Did we want to sell them or did they want out? I think its a bit of both and that comes across from what Fergie says. If you remember Ruud's transfer we tried to sell him to various clubs but he insisted on Madrid, which is why we got stuffed on the fee. I'm open to thinking that Madrid had told Ruud to wait for them, but by the same token had Fergie really wanted him around he wouldn't have sold. I think the time was right for him to go and Madrid had worked themselves into a position where they were well placed to benefit. Beckham, similarly, had fallen out with Sir Alex. Sir Alex will say that's because, like Ruud, he knew Beckham wanted the Madrid life. I think there's truth in that, but I also don't think Sir Alex could stand the celebrity life. Again, Madrid had teed things up to capitalise on that.
Of the players we have sold to Madrid over the years I think the only one we were that keen to keep was Ronaldo. That was one where, clearly, had it been up to Sir Alex Ronaldo would've stayed. There was no personal falling out. Unlike Ruud and Becks who were dropped for big games e.g. league cup final 2006, Champions League knock out 2003, Ronaldo played all the big matches. Plus, Sir Alex seemed to genuinely love Ronaldo and I think Ronaldo genuinely loves him back. They've never had bad words to say about each other. That was one where Madrid began working on the player in 2006 and eventually got him in 2009. De Gea would fall into that category. He is another player we clearly don't want to sell but they have worked on for years to tempt.
