Cristiano Ronaldo has been the usual picture of self absorption in recent days.

He told the Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz after the national side's win in Albania on Saturday that he needed to skip the next fixture — in Estonia on Wednesday night — so he could return to Lisbon to rest a sore foot.

He did fly back to Lisbon Poretela airport — only to wait for the next available flight to Los Angeles, board it on Sunday and head for some sun.

It now seems that Ronaldo knew he needed to get away from the footballing world in a hurry. Events leading to United's announcement of an agreed £80m price had been fast-moving and can be dated to last Friday, when Ronaldo rolled up in Albania with the Portugal squad.

The nation's star turn cancelled a press conference appearance that day, while United chief executive David Gill was also forced to abandon plans of his own.

It seems he had business to attend to — the notice he had just received of Fiorentino Perez's £80m bid for Ronaldo. It was a figure of such astounding proportions that Gill immediately approached the Glazer family, who said the decision must be Sir Alex Ferguson's.

Gill called Ferguson in the south of France and he gave the go-ahead for the offer to be accepted.

It was an outcome the United manager had known might come to pass, ever since he flew to Lisbon to dissuade Ronaldo from leaving for Real last summer.

In three of the past four years the Portuguese has expressed a desire to leave for the Bernabeu and the accommodation that player and manager seem to reach was simple. That if Real if came in yet again this summer, with a figure matching United's demands, and he still wanted to leave, then no-one would stand in his way.

Ferguson, no doubt, felt that once free from the summer distractions on the continent, Ronaldo might be persuaded to extend his United career. It is hard to believe there was a firm, pre-agreed deal between Real and United when Ferguson said so fervently last December that he would "not sell that mob a virus."

But the body language told us something about Ronaldo's feelings. His declarations of loyalty to United have been less than convincing in the past nine months. When Ferguson falteringly tried to stop a question on the subject before United's Champions League quarter final against Porto, Ronaldo rescued him. "Always this question," he declared. "I'm happy at this club."

Then came Ronaldo's fit of pique when substituted in United's victory in the Manchester derby on May 10. There was no public rebuke but Ferguson would have read the signs.

As United prepared for the Champions League final in Rome, Perez was arriving at the Bernabeu with his moneybags. Portuguese sources suggest the first contact between Real's general director Jorge Valdano and Ronaldo came immediately after the Champions League final on May 27.

It was after a conversation in which Valdano told Ronaldo of Madrid's big plans that the player immediately told Mendes he was intent on leaving United.

Witnessing Perez's bid for world domination from his sun lounger in the south of France, Ferguson would probably have resigned himself to last week's inevitable call from Gill. A deal was a deal.

Within 48 hours, Gill was making an informal telephone call to Wigan chief executive Brenda Spence, inquiring after Antonio Valencia.

As ever at Manchester United, life goes on.