'Juventus worse with Ronaldo' - Are the Old Lady and CR7 spiralling towards a summer divorce?
Cristiano Ronaldo is the reason why most people expect Juventus to progress past Porto in Tuesday's Champions League last-16 second leg in Turin.
But there are also those who believe he is the reason why the Bianconeri have a 2-1 deficit to overcome.
Juve were abysmal in the first leg at the Dragao, and Ronaldo unusually ineffective. As the Gazzetta dello Sportpointed out in their match ratings, the Portuguese had Rodrigo Bentancur to thank for avoiding the ignominy of being labelled the worst player on the pitch.
Ten days later, Juve were held to a 1-1 draw at Verona, a result which left Andrea Pirlo's side 10 points off the top of the Serie A standings.
Ronaldo netted at the Marcantonio Bentegodi, but his worth was nonetheless called into question by Antonio Cassano.
"Juventus signed him to win the Champions League, but they have had worse results since he arrived," the retired forward told the Corriere dello Sport, alluding to the fact that a club that made two finals in three years between 2015 and 2017 has failed to even reach the semis for the past two seasons.
"They would have won Serie A titles without him anyway. It was the wrong project... Ronaldo has nothing to do with Pirlo's ideas. He will carry on scoring because he can even do it while sitting down.
"But Andrea wants to build the action from the back, he wants to press high on the pitch. Ronaldo can decide games, but he doesn’t participate in them much.
"I think he will have done badly at Juve unless they manage to win the Champions League."
Firstly, it is worth bearing in mind that Cassano is an outspoken character who courted controversy throughout a career that failed to live up to early expectations, so Pirlo certainly will not be questioning Ronaldo's role within his team just because his former Italy team-mate has spoken out.
As the Juve boss dismissively wrote of Cassano in his autobiography, "Antonio claims to have slept with over 700 women, but he's no longer called by the national team, so can he be happy?"
But are Juve happy with Ronaldo? And, more pertinently, is Ronaldo happy with Juve? Or is a love affair that began while the Portuguese was still a Real Madrid player now destined to end in divorce?
Ronaldo costs Juve around €85m (£73m/$94m) a year in wages, taxes and amortisation (the money the club has committed to paying on an annual basis to cover the striker's transfer fee over the four years of his contract).
That contract expires in the summer of 2022, so if Juve are to make any money back on his exit, they will have to sell him at the conclusion of the current campaign.
What's more, Ronaldo may be willing to leave too.
He has become an expert in defying the ravages of time but, at 36, he will not have many more shots at Champions League and Ballon d'Or glory.
The most pertinent issue, then, is whether he truly believes he can lift either trophy again as a Juventus player because, as it stands, the Bianconeri will struggle to win Serie A this season let alone the Champions League.
