Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici has given his full backing to manager Andrea Pirlo and star player Cristiano Ronaldo despite the Serie A champions having a disastrous season by their own high standards.
Despite scoring 23 goals in 24 league games, Ronaldo has become the scapegoat for a dismal Juve season, capped off by Sunday's shock 1-0 home defeat to relegation battlers Benevento, who had not won in 11 matches.
Pirlo, who landed the manager's job despite his only experience being a week-long stint as Juventus under-23s coach, has also come in for severe criticism given Juve's decline in a season where they were pushing for a 10th consecutive Serie A title.
But Paratici insisted that both Pirlo and Ronaldo were key parts of Juventus' future.
'We have a project that we started from last season, one game will not change our views or our strategy,' he told Sky Sport Italia.
'This line continues and we are very happy with what we've done, so we'll continue working to improve.'
Ronaldo, whose salary at Juve is almost four times higher than the next highest paid player, was also meant to be the key behind the Old Lady winning the Champions League for the first time since 1996.
That still has not happened, with the Serie A champions crashing out in the last 16 after losing to Porto.
But Paratici remained firm on Ronaldo's importance to the club
'This is Juve, we have Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player in the world, and we're holding on tight,' he said.
On Pirlo, whose record so far is significantly worse than his fired predecessors Maurizio Sarri and Max Allegri, Paratici said he was still the man to lead the club.
'We were not unsatisfied with the previous coaches, but there were different reasons why we decided to change,' he explained.
'Just as a defeat won't change the project of a club, a victory won't either. Once an approach has been decided on, we see it through.
'I don't believe the word 'transitional' exists at Juventus. We play every game aiming to win, some go better than others, but transition isn't an issue here. Every year is important, even when it doesn't necessarily have the same results as in the past.'