Manchester City boss Mark Hughes believes Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will know what he is doing over the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. "There seems to have been a lot of speculation about Ronaldo's future for a number of seasons, to the extent it has started to become predictable," said Hughes.

"Obviously Manchester United feel it is good business for them.

"Sir Alex Ferguson makes key decisions very quickly and I suspect he will have been very much involved in what has happened.

"He has made what he thinks is the right decision for the club and we have to respect that."

Hughes has been interested to see the positive light in which Real's approach for Ronaldo and their world-record £56million purchase of Kaka has been viewed.

The reaction compares sharply to the adverse publicity City received for their own, unsuccessful, approach for Kaka last January.

"It is a significant amount of money and I am sure Real Madrid will be very pleased with the business they have been able to do," said Hughes.

"Obviously we pursued one of the players involved and the reaction that approach was viewed in was somewhat different."