Cristiano Ronaldo has to be Andrea Pirlo’s favourite player at the moment after keeping him in the Juventus job for at least one more week.

Pirlo was a huge gamble by Juventus after they made him their manager ahead of this campaign.

The former midfielder had no prior managerial experience and he was coming into a team that has won the last nine league titles.

He essentially is using this Juve team to learn how to manage and it is a baffling experiment for Fabio Paratici to take.

His team has been below-par this season and the same players who helped Juve win the league last season have lost games to a team like Benevento in this campaign.

They were staring another defeat in the face yesterday when they faced Udinese in another Serie A fixture.

The Friulians had raced into a first-half lead after another sloppy start from Juventus.

They defended their lead very well and it was not until late in the game that Juve scored an equaliser and a winning goal. Both came courtesy of Ronaldo.

Il Bianconero did a piece today and reckon that Pirlo has had his job saved by Ronaldo for another week, but he doesn’t seem to have a long-term future at the club.

A bold statement and probably a true one as well.