Giorgio Chiellini believes Juventus’ preparations for the season were derailed by the late departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, with The Old Lady skipper suggesting it would have been better if he left earlier in the window.
Ronaldo completed a £17m move back to Old Trafford from Juventus over the summer, joining The Red Devils just three days before the end of the transfer window, with the Portuguese actually appearing for the Italian club in their first match against Udinese as a substitute.
Having seen Ronaldo depart at the eleventh hour, Juve endured an exceptionally sluggish start to Massimiliano Allegri’s second reign, going winless in their opening four games to the Serie A season, which included successive defeats to Empoli and current table-toppers Napoli.
The Italian coach has seen stabilised the ship and got Juve back firing on all cylinders as the Turin club look to re-establish themselves in the upper slopes of Serie A, but Chiellini believes his side would not have dawdled in those opening weeks had Ronaldo’s future been decided earlier in the window.
He told DAZN: “We had arrived at a point in our relationship where Cristiano needed new goals and a team that would play for him, because when he finds a team like that he is decisive. He is proving it in these months and he has also shown it with us.
“Here at Juventus, a programme of rejuvenation and restarting was born. If Ronaldo had stayed, he would have been an added value, but it is normal that he thought more about the present than the future.
“Ronaldo left on August 28, it would have been better for us if he had left earlier. We paid something for it, a little bit of a shock, we paid something for it in terms of points. If he had left earlier we would have had time to prepare better.”