"Without question in my mind he is the best player in this world of ours. By absolutely miles. He is streets ahead of Lionel Messi, streets ahead of Kaka. Absolutely.
"Look at his figures. They are unbelievable. The attempts he has on goal, the attacks in the penalty box, his positions, his headers, his shots. It wasn't easy to see him go. I had a good chat with the boy about it but he had made up his mind.
"Last year, he was begging me but this was a more sensible discussion and I felt it was right. I told him we would let him go on the condition that we received the largest fee ever paid for a footballer.
"The best of him is yet to come because he is still only 24. He may come back to the club, you never know. He loved it. He loved Manchester United. He has been back to see me; we went out and had dinner somewhere private. If you look back on the six years he had with us, he never missed training. That is the one thing he had above all these other players, he was never injured. He always played. He was fantastic."