CRISTIANO RONALDO: TRUTH BEHIND MOVE 
United players were happy to see him go SIR ALEX FERGUSON might have had the final say - but the whispers from the dressing room were becoming hard to ignore.
Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving - but he won't be lamented. Twelve months ago, when Real Madrid first came calling, Ronaldo was inundated with text messages from senior Manchester United players - urging him to stay. This time, there have been none.
FINGER POINTS - Sir Alex Ferguson (bottom right) makes his point to Cristiano Ronaldo at the end of the Champions League FinalRonaldo had grown apart from his team-mates, Ferguson had sensed it - and that is why the Old Trafford manager was happy to take Real Madrid's £80million.
On the training ground, they were tiring of his tantrums. On the pitch, they were fed up of his selfishness.
And it culminated in fury from senior players after Ronaldo tried to single-handedly beat Barcelona in the Champions League final last month.
STARE WAY TO HELL - Rio Ferdinand (right) looks at Cristiano Ronaldo at the end of the Champions League Final A United insider told the News of the World: "To many, that was the final straw and showed what he had become.
"Wayne Rooney had to change position three times to accommodate Ronaldo. The experienced players in the squad had seen it coming and weren't happy about it.
"Ronaldo had been getting more and more temperamental in training and the others were getting fed up with him. They knew his mind was elsewhere and they thought he was becoming a distraction.
"The senior guys couldn't believe it when he threw the tantrum during the Manchester City game."
That tantrum came after an hour of the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on May 10. Ronaldo had fired United ahead with a trademark free-kick and after Carlos Tevez made the points safe on the stroke of half-time, Ferguson decided his Portuguese star would benefit from a rest ahead of the crucial Premier League trip to Wigan three days later.
That decision sparked a furious reaction from Ronaldo - who shook his head in disbelief when he realised his number was up.The winger snatched his training top aggressively and sat on the bench, mouthing his disgust.
Publicly at least, Ferguson brushed aside the incident, witnessed by millions on TV, insisting: "He wanted to stay on. He is in great form. But I've got to look at the big picture. I've got to think about keeping our players as fresh as we can for the games ahead."
LOOKING BAD - Wayne Rooney looks at Cristiano Ronaldo as he hugs Carlos Tevez after the Champions League FinalPrivately, though, there is no doubt Ferguson and many of Ronaldo's United team-mates were irked by the petulant show of defiance.
And as Ronaldo hogged more and more of the limelight, there was increasing sympathy for Rooney - a player, unlike his departing team-mate, who is liked by everyone at Old Trafford and at the club's Carrington training complex.
LAST OUT - Cristiano Ronaldo (far left) stands alone as his United team-mates line up at the end of the Champions League FinalThe England striker was always the one forced to make a positional sacrifice and, towards the end of the season, grew frustrated at being edged out towards the left flank. His annoyance with Ronaldo during the Champions League final in Rome was plain to see.
The departure of Ronaldo should see Rooney play more in his favoured position - the second striker role he has filled so spectacularly for England.
And it will also mean the way is clear for Rooney to be rewarded for his unstinting commitment by being handed a new contract and being made the highest-paid player at Old Trafford.
IF LOOKS COULD KILL - Dimitar Berbatov (right) looks at Cristiano Ronaldo during the Champions League FinalRooney, 23, has two years left on his current £100,000-a-week deal but United will open negotiations with his advisers later this summer. And that will lead to a new, six-year deal which will start at a basic £125,000-a-week and rise sharply.
The United insider explained: "Ferguson has always said that if he had to lose either Ronaldo or Rooney, it would be Ronaldo every time. Rooney is the future of United and everyone there knows they can count on his loyalty and his team ethic."
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Rooney, of course, was involved in the infamous incident in Gelsenkirchen at the 2006 World Cup which saw Ronaldo winking as the England striker was sent off as Sven Goran Eriksson's team crashed out on penalties. Although Ronaldo was forgiven, the moment was never forgotten.
United, meanwhile are facing a £2.5m scrap with Sporting Lisbon over Ronaldo's switch to the Bernabeu.
The Portuguese club are set to slap in a claim to United for "development costs" during Ronaldo's time at Sporting. They reckon they are entitled to cash from the sensational £80m which will be heading into the Old Trafford coffers.
A Lisbon source said: "Sporting spent a lot of time and money on Ronaldo during his formative years and they feel they are entitled to some compensation."
EYES HAVE IT - Alex Ferguson (right) with Cristiano RonaldoReal's new president Florentino Perez made Ronaldo his second megabucks capture of the summer after signing Brazil playmaker Kaka from AC Milan for what - for a few days, at least - was then a new world record fee of £62m.
But Spanish sources claim the man who invented the galactico ethos is expected to tie up a £35m deal to sign Valencia's Spanish international striker David Villa this week - making the Spanish international the third high-profile Bernabeu deal inside a fortnight.
But there will certainly be no tears shed around Old Trafford at Ronaldo's imminent departure. And the mood of the players is best summed up by Nemanja Vidic, who was asked about Ronaldo's future before it was confirmed he was heading off.
Vidic declared: "It is not a situation I know anything about but what I will say is that I and the players have total trust in the manager. The fans have seen him over the years lose players and build new teams - but never has he lost that winning mentality.
"No matter who has gone, the manager has continued to be successful. It is the only way he knows. He has lost major players over the last 10 years but he has proved that no player is ever bigger than the club."
. . . And from what a lot of the players saw, Cristiano Ronaldo had begun to think he was just that.
