I think you can piece together what happened fairly well. Ronaldo was shopped about all summer to big clubs all over Europe, City weren't interested, upon the Kane deal falling through Mendes tried again and City made vaguely positive noises, Pep wasn't entirely sure but agreed that he'd prefer the option than none at all, there were some early discussions about price, City and Juventus were on their way to hammering something out, and then the United contingent swooped in and changed Ronaldo's mind. We definitely didn't go in to force United's hand, but United are so badly run and desperate that they will continue to fuck themselves over. Put another way, United don't factor into our decision making, but on more than one occasion we factor into theirs.