The deal to take Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United appeared to take everyone by surprise, and now it’s been revealed that not even Max Allegri knew about it.
After signing for the Italian giants in 2018, the Portuguese didn’t go on to have quite the impact expected, and with the coronavirus pandemic decimating club finances everywhere, the bianconeri board will surely have been delighted to have offloaded Ronaldo’s significant wages.
It does seem that allowing the deal to go ahead has already caused a rift between Allegri and his paymasters too.
Not that keeping Ronaldo would’ve been a condition of the manager’s employment surely.
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The Sun are citing Il Giornale’s report that Allegri is ‘furious’ and, after a recent defeat against Empoli, the team could well have done with the injection of professionalism that Ronaldo provides.
Now, other options have to be considered in the hope that, by season’s end, Juve are back challenging for the Scudetto after an awful campaign under Andrea Pirlo.
That’s going to be a lot more difficult without their talisman, even if his time in general in Italy has been underwhelming.
As he showed for Portugal against the Republic of Ireland in Wednesday night’s qualifier, he still knows where the goal is. His brace gave him a record-breaking 111 on the international stage.
How Allegri could do with that sort of guarantee now.