Sir Alex Ferguson could lose two more of his Manchester United stars in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80 million world-record transfer to Real Madrid.

Despite Ronaldo’s impending exit from Old Trafford, Carlos Tévez, the Argentina striker, still wants to leave the club and United are bracing themselves for offers from Barcelona, and possibly Real, for Nemanja Vidic.

Vidic’s wife, Ana, is growing increasingly unsettled in Manchester and wants to move to a warmer climate. Pep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, is hoping to exploit the situation by making a £25 million bid for the Serbia defender.

Ferguson will fight tooth and nail to keep Vidic, who has three years left on his contract, but despite telephoning Tévez to urge him to stay, the United manager appears to be chasing a lost cause. Manchester City lead the pursuit of the striker’s signature, ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea.

Expert View

United's problem is that they will have to replace Ronaldo with not one but two new players: a brilliant winger and a prolific goalscorer

Oliver Kay

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United have lined up Antonio Valencia, the Wigan Athletic and Ecuador winger, as a replacement for Ronaldo, but in the event that Tévez leaves, Ferguson will be forced, reluctantly, to go back into the transfer market for another player.

Ferguson admires Franck Ribéry, the Bayern Munich winger, and Karim Benzema, the Lyons striker, but the United manager may be reluctant to do business given the prices being quoted by their respective clubs.

Bayern want €75 million (£64 million) for Ribéry and Lyons €50 million for Benzema, who is only 21 and remains largely unproven outside of his native France.

“We have said we will only deal under certain conditions,” Uli Hoeness, the Bayern general manager, said. “Namely, if the others want to do really crazy things.”

Remarkably, it took United only two hours to agree to Real’s offer for Ronaldo. David Gill, the United chief executive, was making his way to Geneva for a meeting with Fifa officials when his office received a fax from the Spanish club at about 6pm on Wednesday. Sources close to Gill insist that there was no warning from Real that a bid would be forthcoming.

Gill telephoned Ferguson first, then contacted Ronaldo’s camp, before the matter was taken to the Glazer family, the club’s owners, who insisted that the ultimate decision rested with Ferguson, at which point the manager gave the green light to sell the Portugal forward.

The news brought to an end a bitter three-year tug-of-war between the clubs, although it was greeted with an angry reaction by Michel Platini, the Uefa president. He described the fee as a “serious challenge to the idea of fair play” and vowed to establish new rules governing transfers in an effort to “clean up the system”.

It is understood that United will receive the fee in four annual instalments of £20 million. Sources close to the Glazer family insist that Ferguson will be free to reinvest the money on players, despite the club being faced with an interest bill of £69 million last year on their £699 million of debt.

In financial terms, though, the real winner is Ronaldo, 24, who is expected to sign a six-year contract before being formally confirmed as a Real player on July 1.

His salary will start at £9.5 million a year, rising 25 per cent annually to a staggering £29 million — or just over £557,500 a week — in the final year. He stands to earn up to £107 million.

Real’s outlay on Ronaldo and Kaká, who joined for £56 million this week, could total £330 million, with the club paying more than £1 million a week in wages for the pair come the 2014-2015 season.