Charlton: Ronaldo Leaves With Our Blessing... And Ferguson Is Very Brave!

Cristiano Ronaldo became the fourth United player to be named the European Player of the Year, after Denis Law, Sir Bobby Charlton and George Best were awarded with the title in the 60’s.

Charlton has reflected on the decision to sell Ronaldo, showing he has no bad feelings towards the player, and putting his full faith in Sir Alex Ferguson to make the right decision.

“Ronaldo leaves us because as a young boy he always dreamt about playing for Real Madrid, so if he leaves us it is with our blessing,” said Charlton. “We are very grateful that he has scored goals, that he has played well, that he’s contributed to the fame of Manchester United.”

Our legend, who is from a different age of football, is shocked by the amount of money spent, but understands we have to think from a business perspective these days.

“It is an enormous amount of money and it sometimes seems a little bit vulgar,” he continued. “But nevertheless that is business, I am afraid. We have responsibilities as a company. It’s a lot of money. It seems crazy really, but the more the money the players cost, the more the television companies appear to be able to contribute that little bit more too.”

Some have questioned whether United can go on to be successful without Ronaldo, but Charlton insists that the manager knows what he is doing.

“It is a little bit of soul searching,” he added. “You wonder if you made the right decision. We shall never know until the season starts. Alex Ferguson is a great judge of the player. He is very brave, he’s very brave with his decisions, he’s very decisive with his decisions, and that is why he’s been a major success.”