Ronaldo was sold, the only condition was all the money was to be paid in a lump sum, that looked great in the pre bond issue accounts. Tevez fee and wages would not have looked so good in the old accounts so lets replace him with the considerably cheaper Owen. Valencia, a great player, at 16m on the never never was the Ronaldo alternative. These transfers were done IMHO purely to make the selling of the bonds easier and it was also quite easy to blame the players concerned, as most of us did, for wanting away.
If the team was made weaker, why would that make selling the Bonds easier?
If the team was not made weaker, why not go for less expensive options?
If Ronaldo had always said that he loved being a Manchester United player and wanted to see out his playing days in the Red shirt, I think you'd have a point but that is a million miles away from the truth. He always spoke of his "dream" being to play for Real Madrid. For himself and for his mother.
By all accounts, we could have sold Ronnie twelve months earlier than we did but Fergie talked him 'round to staying for one more season. If his hand was being forced by the Glazers, do you think he would have been able to talk Ronnie 'round? No. The Glazers would have sold the player regardless and got the £60million (or whatever was on offer at the time).
There is no evidence whatsoever that the Glazers had anything to do with the transfer of Ronaldo but when it became clear that, on balance, it was the right thing to do, it was great business to get a world record £80million fee upfront.
Tevez is another story. He has no particular allegiance to any club in England. He came along with his pimp a few years ago and joined, of all places, West Ham. The idea was to put him in the shop window and get the most money out of him for himself and his pimp.
We took the option on him, gave him a couple of seasons and then, by all accounts, offered the fee that was agreed at the beginning.
In the meantime, Manchester City came sniffing with their mega riches and I believe Tevez is on something in the region of £150k/week there.
As I believe that we are trying to get the far superior Wayne Rooney to agree a £140k/week deal, there is no way on earth that we would insult Rooney by offering Tevez more. I doubt we would have offered Tevez more than £100k.
So, Tevez and his pimp are sat there thinking to themselves, "Shall we go to City for £150k a week or stay at United for £100k a week?" Hmm... it's a toughie.
If players want to play for Manchester United then they are rewarded for their loyalty to the club. This has always been the case and continues to be the case.
For your argument to hold any water at all, we should also have let Vidic leave this summer and gone with a cheaper option (Smalling, for example) but instead we gave him an improved deal which he signed yesterday.
This proves that investment in the team is a priority for the Glazers and, contrary to what you say, they are not selling off our best players in order to balance the books.