In an interview with GQ magazine, Ferguson claimed
Gabriel Heinze, who moved from Old Trafford to Madrid for £8m last
summer, was simply a pawn in Real's "obscene" hunt of his close
friend and former team-mate Ronaldo.
Ferguson said: “I knew their bid was coming (for Ronaldo). “When
we sold Gabriel Heinze to Real Madrid we knew it was going to
happen because Ronaldo was very close to Heinze. I don’t believe
they were interested in Heinze, good player though he is.
"The end game was to get Ronaldo. What made it really obscene
was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being
able to get whomever and whatever they wanted before democracy came
to Spain.”
Calderon has since claimed Madrid's pursuit of the winger is
over "forever", and in response to Ferguson's
comments, told Marca: "I won't waste time answering him. I
admire his history but recently he has gone a bit senile."
Ferguson has also been insulted by the front cover of Marca,
which has a series of pictures depicting the 66-year-old morphing
into General Franco, under the headline 'Calderon loses his
patience with the "Little Franco of Manchester".
Calderon's remarks are the second attack on Ferguson in the last
24 hours. Arrigo Sacchi, a former director of football at Real, has
suggested it is Ferguson who should take a long, hard look at
himself over United's pursuit of Giuseppe Rossi.
The Italian forward has since been sold to Villarreal, and
Sacchi said: "I was surprised when I read about Sir Alex
complaining Real are not a gentleman club. "But he was out of order
saying Real always get what they want because they are a club who
belonged to General Franco.
"He took Rossi at the age of 16 when he was playing for my club
Parma. "We were struggling financially but Sir Alex robbed us. They
knew we needed money and help. But they acted in a sneaky way and
took our star player."