12 Things Man Utd Want You To Forget About Sir Alex Ferguson

7. Caving In And Selling Cristiano Ronaldo

In 2009, with Real Madrid taking their flirting with Cristiano Ronaldo to new romantic levels, Sir Alex Ferguson appeared to put the buffers on any prospect of the midfielder leaving for Spain by insisting "he would not sell them a virus". United fans breathed a sigh of relief. One of the best players to ever wear the Red shirt was going to stay after all. Unfortunately, by June that year, Ferguson had completely caved in on his stance and sold Ronaldo for a then-world-transfer record £80 million. Ferguson had fallen on his sword. The money on offer had proven too much to resist and the Scotsman's bullish attitude on the whole saga fell by the wayside. To make matters worse, Ferguson was mocked by Spanish newspaper Marca who published a mocked up picture of the United manager morphing into dictator General Franco - a reference to Ferguson's taunting of Madrid's historical links to the Spanish dictator, and probably a subtle dig at his failed attempts to make Ronaldo stay at Old Trafford.