Arsenal could not keep Nicolas Anelka in 1999, when he was on £12,500 a week.
It now looks as if Manchester United cannot keep Cristiano Ronaldo, who is on £50,000 a week.
We're told that Barcelona have offered £40 million for him.
Ronaldo, like Anelka at the same stage, is a boy. And, like Anelka, he is a mercenary.
His story is short but interesting. In 2003 Cristiano Ronaldo, 18, was signed from Sporting Lisbon for £12 million. In 2005 he was Manchester United's lowest-paid player on £14,000 a week, so they gave him a new contract on £50,000 a week till 2010.
There had been talk of him going to Chelsea but Sir Alex said, " He has three years left on his contract and we are only doing what we do in these situations. He is happy here. He has been fantastic. The courage he has to get the ball all the time, the confidence in his ability is terrific. He's done well, the lad."
In 2006-2007, Ronaldo has raised his game and scored 15 league goals before February. So, twice in a four year period, the winger has outperformed his contract, given his team more than they expected, more than they had paid for. If Manchester United are champions, Cristiano Ronaldo will be the Footballer of the Year.
He was 22 last week and now Spain is calling.
United have offered to double his wages to £100,000 a week. That is over £4 million a year but he allegedly wants £8 million a year. His agent's argument is : If he's the best player in the world, he deserves to be paid as the best player in the world.
Ronaldo recently said: “I don’t know where I will be in the space of the next six months. For the moment, I’m only thinking about training well every day.”
If they give him £8 million a year for four years it's £32 million and Manchester United can afford to pay him that.
So the £32 million is not the problem.
Their problem is : Should they turn down £40 million ? If Ronaldo doesn't want to play for United, why turn down £40 million?
Because Manchester United do not sell their best players !!!! And because Sir Alex and his assistant Carlos Queiroz probably think the boy would not be as good elsewhere, away from their management. With the help of the Scot and his Portuguese assistant, Ronaldo has improved beyond recognition since he arrived as a skinny winger. He is now a thirteen stone gladiator with a never-say-die attitude.
At last week's Brazil-Portugal game, his agent Jorge Mendes and Txiki Begiristain, Barcelona's director of football, sat together at the Emirates Stadium and watched Ronaldo outshine Kaka of AC Milan, Fred of Lyon and Elano of Udinese
It was said they are old friends, that three of Mendes's players are at Barca, and they didn't talk about a transfer deal this summer. Yeah, right !
When Ronaldo is hot, he is a one-man army. He can win the ball, sprint into spaces, dribble at high speed, lift crowds, scare opponents, earn free-kicks, and score goals
Could you have Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo in the same team? Depends who is coaching Barcelona. Frank Rijkaard might go in the summer, and Ronaldinho might go too.
Last Saturday, after starring for Portugal in that 2-0 win over Brazil, Ronaldo didn't play for United against Charlton. He was injured.
And in his absence Wayne Rooney had a blinder. That is no coincidence. Rooney looked very good because Ronaldo wasn't there.
Frankly, those two don't combine that much.
But when the time comes they will. When the Champions League comes, and United play top teams, Rooney and Ronaldo will both care intensely about winning the European Cup, and they will combine. They will need each other, so they'll pass to each other, play for each other.
At the moment, for them, beating average Premiership teams is too easy. United are coasting. They need to be challenged. And in March and April they will be challenged.
Obviously, United fans would like Ronaldo to stay and help them win five titles, like Cantona.
But every star player is different and circumstances vary so much that it's hard to compare. Ronaldo is at the beginning of his career, whereas Cantona was 26 when he came from Leeds in November 1992, after burning all his bridges in France. Old Trafford was Cantona's stage, but Ronaldo is still young enough to believe that the world is his stage.
When Cantona left United, he finished playing football, retiring in May, 1997, a week short of his 31st birthday. I thought it was a stunt, a tantrum, but it wasn't. He had gone.Today Cristiano Ronaldo is a different animal in a different era. He will never be a Manchester United legend because he won't be there long enough.
We think of a mercenary as someone with specialised skills who parachutes in at night, does a difficult job for big wages, then leaves. Is CR a typical mercenary? Can he pick up his tools and passport move on, and do the same job anywhere? We don't know yet. All we know is that he's a boy who wants to train and play with the sun on his back. A Latin boy from the island of Madeira, he thinks he'd be happier in a Latin country living a Latin lifestyle.
In time, Ronaldo might find the authority that Anelka demonstrates for Bolton now. When Anelka was at Arsenal he was a bit like Ronaldo is now, a flashy player, a meteorite who lights up the night sky, but he has matured, so he plays with composure and focus, as if determined to make the most of the seasons he has left. He was a boy-footballer but now he's a man and he's motivated to show Arsene Wenger he is still a world class striker, despite having made the mistake of leaving Arsenal too soon.
