Italy coach Marcello Lippi has backed Sir Alex Ferguson's insistence that Cristiano Ronaldo remain at Manchester United.

Lippi said: "The Ronaldo saga has ruined [Ferguson's] summer. Real's 100 million [Euros] is an extraordinary figure, but some things you can't buy.

"I think it's right that a player doesn't always get the last word. Ferguson is very stubborn. I think that Ronaldo will stay in Manchester, which is the right decision from a technical point of view. But Portugal's failure at Euro 2008 shows that not even a Ronaldo can win a big tournament on his own."