2009–10 Manchester United F.C. season and United were knocked out on away goals. United announced early in the transfer window that they had agreed a world record fee of £80 million to sell Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Shortly after this, they confirmed that Carlos Tevez, who had been on loan with the club for two seasons, had not taken up the offer of a permanent contract. Tevez would later sign for United's local rivals, Manchester City. Lee Martin, Fraizer Campbell, Richard Eckersley and Manucho also left the club for an undisclosed fee. After the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez, United sought a new striker,
Transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid C.F. to Juventus F.C. idea of obtaining Ronaldo came from sporting director Fabio Paratici, as per Pavel Nedvěd. Pérez would comment on the situation on 21 September, stating: "Nobody [was willing to] give more than €100 million. He wanted to go and the most [we could obtain would] be that amount. We have not had many more offers." Moreover, Manchester United manager José Mourinho argued at a press conference in early September that Ronaldo was "never on [his] table to say 'yes' or 'no'" to, while Massimiliano Mirabelli and Marco Fassone, Milan's former director of football and former managing director respectively, admitted in November