Sir Alex Ferguson: 6 Manchester United Players He Was Right to Sell When He Did

Sir Alex Ferguson, in his 25 years at Manchester United, has negotiated some of the best transfer deals in the club's history.

He's given great credit for his ability as a master tactician and respected motivator, but rarely gets a mention when the topic is transfers.

Yes, Sir Alex has signed some big flops—Juan Sebastian Veron, Diego Forlan, Kleberson, Massimo Taibi, Karel Poborsky, Jesper Blomqvist, the list is almost endless really—but the point is, the Red Devils boss knows the right time to sell a player.

After all, he's sold on countless players for big fees who proved their best days were left at United, and sold one player for what is currently a world record transfer fee.

In his time at the club, Sir Alex has made some great deals for United. Here are six players Ferguson was right to sell when he did.

Andrei Kanchelskis

People thought Sir Alex Ferguson was mad selling for Andrei Kanchelskis in 1995, but in truth the Manchester United manager was spot-on in letting the Russian winger go.

The Old Trafford faithful thought it was the completely wrong decision to sell Kanchelskis to Everton for £5 million, especially seen as in his first season with the Toffees he was excellent.

But, Sir Alex had indeed got the best out of the player before moving him on, as Kanchelskis struggled after his debut campaign at Goodison Park, netting just four goals in 20 games in his second season, before being shoved over to Fiorentina, who then let him go to Rangers, who loaned him out to Manchester City then sold him to Southampton.

The Saints then lumped him on to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, before he ended his career with Krylia Sovetov.

Paul Ince

Paul Ince was another key Manchester United player sold by Sir Alex Ferguson in 1995—again to the dismay of United fans.

He was a key player throughout the 1994-95 season, and the campaign before was crucial as United won the Premier League and FA Cup.

However, a no-show performance which helped United fail to retain their FA Cup title in the final against Everton capped off a fractious relationship with the manager, who earlier labelled Ince a "bottler" and "big-time Charlie."

Sir Alex subsequently sold him to Inter Milan for £7.5 million, a very big fee at the time.

And despite what the supporters said, it was the right move, as Ince's departure paved the way for Nicky Butt at Old Trafford, while the player himself failed to settle in Serie A and moved back to England, where he was average for Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Alan Smith

Alan Smith was meant to be the next big thing at Manchester United, after proving his innate talent at Leeds United despite the club ultimately being relegated.

Signed for £7 million in high hopes of the player being the next great striker at the club, Smith was incredibly lacklustre in front of goal, leading Sir Alex Ferguson to see if the player who played up-front all his career would be better as a holding midfielder, due to his nature of getting stuck into challenges.

He turned out to be an awful striker and a very mediocre midfielder.

Yet still Sir Alex managed to sell him to Newcastle United for £6 million, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Seeing as Smith is now playing for MK Dons in League One, England's third-tier, where he's struggling to get game time.

David Beckham

Sir Alex Ferguson was right to sell three players to Real Madrid (even though he once said he wouldn't sell that mob a virus).

One of them was David Beckham, one of Manchester United's best, and probably most famous, academy graduates of all-time.

He left in 2003 for the Bernabeu in a £25 million deal, where he failed to replicate his United form, won only one trophy in four seasons and was frozen out of the team for a lot of his final season after falling out with Fabio Capello.

The psychological pressure which affected teammates from the media circus surrounding Beckham affected his Real Madrid colleagues and lifted a psychological weight from the United players.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Sir Alex Ferguson got 150 goals in 219 matches out of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, making him Manchester United's most prolific striker of all-time.

But in 2006, after five seasons at the club where the Dutchman was guaranteed to net a goal at least once every two games, Sir Alex felt the time was right to let Van Nistelrooy go.

It was not a popular decision considering he'd scored 21 Premier League goals in his final season.

But seeing as he'd fallen out with United's emerging superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Real Madrid had offered €24 million for the then 30-year-old, the manager didn't have to be a football psychic to realise the benefit of this deal.

And it turned out to be the right choice, as although Van Nistelrooy scored a sensational 33 goals in his first season at the Bernabeu, United went on to win a hat-trick of Premier League titles in the next three years, adding a UEFA Champions League trophy along the way.

Why? Because Van Nistelrooy's departure led to the prominence of Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Signed for £12.25 million in 2003 and sold in 2009 for £80 million. The best bit of business in world football transfer history, even if the player has been legendary for Real Madrid.

Sir Alex Ferguson gained world-record transfer revenue and profit from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, the goal-scoring virus, to that mob at the Bernabeu.

Seeing as Ronaldo had declared his love of playing at Madrid, and wasn't hitting the goalscoring heights he was capable of at Old Trafford, to get a world-record amount for him was phenomenal business.

All in all, Madrid bought Ronaldo at the right time given how well he's repaid his fee, just as Sir Alex was right to sell him at the time.