Andy Booth column: Ronaldo's move, Capello's quality and big Eorl's reward

Jun 12 2009 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE £80million that Real Madrid have paid for Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo is simply unbelievable!

I really didn’t think that he was going to go, though the player himself has being making noises about moving on for some time now.

For United it will be a big loss to part with a player who carries the ‘best in the world’ tag, but having said that it is £80m in the bank and that can buy you a lot of talent.

But Madrid have certainly set out their stall for the coming season with Ronaldo joining Kaka and there are rumours of other top players becoming part of the new generation of Galacticos.

Anyone in the world would pay good money to watch the side they are putting together and even now you would have to make them favourites for the Champions League title next season.

But it will have to be seen whether buying the best players will actually give them the best team.

There are going to be some huge personalities in that dressing room and they will have to gel to have any success and it will take a firm hand from the management team – it will be a formidable task.

However, while Ronaldo is a loss to United, I don’t think that it will change too much at Old Trafford.

Sir Alex Ferguson has always made it obvious that no player is bigger than the club and his ability to move players on when they have become unsettled has been a major part of the success they have enjoyed.

He has signed and then let go such big stars as Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Japp Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy. They all seemed like players that couldn’t be replaced, yet they were somehow fairly quickly forgotten and you can be sure that the manager has already got something up his sleeve.

Perhaps the biggest shame is for the loss for the Premiership. As a neutral I always like to think that it is good for our game to have the very best players in our competition.