Juventus bosses may have felt slightly nervous at the start of the season after Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score in his first three competitive appearances for his new club.

The Serie A outfit forked out a cool £100 million to bring the Portuguese legend to Turin - a hefty fee for a player who turns 34 years old during the 2018-19 campaign.

It was seen by many football fans as a gamble. A calculated gamble, yes, but a gamble nonetheless.

Although Ronaldo had averaged an astonishing 50 goals a season during his nine years with Real Madrid, there were question marks - given his advancing years - over whether he would be quite so prolific in Serie A.

And so when Ronaldo failed to hit the back of the net against Chievo, Lazio and Parma, there were many who claimed Juve had just wasted a fortune on a player who was clearly past his best.

However, football fans should know better than to write off Ronaldo, who has silenced all of his critics and doubters during his illustrious career.

In his fourth competitive appearance, Ronaldo scored both of Juve’s goals over Sassuolo. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner hasn’t looked back since.

After 15 games, Ronaldo currently has nine goals to his name for the Old Lady. Average stats by his ridiculously high standards, but still pretty impressive.

Andre Villas-Boas - the former FC Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham boss - has now come out and spoken the truth about Madrid’s decision to sell Ronaldo to Juve.

"It totally surprised me,” Ronaldo’s compatriot was quoted as saying by Sport. “How do you sell Cristiano for 100 million?

“It doesn't make sense from any point of view: not in a sporting or economic sense."

Plenty of football fans will now agree with you, Andre.

The fact Madrid are currently sixth in La Liga with a pitiful goal difference of +4 after 12 matches shows exactly how Los Blancos have coped without their former talismanic number seven.

The father of Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked by Madrid in October after just four-and-a-half months in the job, summed it up best by claiming Madrid had ‘stolen’ 50 goals from his son by selling Ronaldo.

“Cristiano Ronaldo was good,” the 88-year-old was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard. "Was he cocky? We all have defects. But he scored 50 goals a season. Now he is missed. They don’t have a goalscorer. Not one.

“Nobody came in. It was Neymar this and the other guy that, but nobody arrived… they have stolen 50 goals from my son.”