Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that the £80m that Real Madrid paid us for Cristiano Ronaldo was a bargain. He has finally won the league with them this season, having won just one trophy in his first two years in Madrid.

Ronaldo has scored 145 goals in 143 games for Real Madrid (33 in 35 in the first year, 53 in 54 in his second and 59 in 54 this season), leading the manager to believe we could have charged a lot more with hindsight.

“There is still value in the market if you are going to be that successful,” he said. “Ronaldo has scored more goals than he has played games. At the time we thought £80m wasn’t bad business, but if Real Madrid had known how good he was going to be they would probably have paid £160m. He’s been such a fantastic buy for them, maybe we should have asked for £800m.”