Carlo Ancelotti is now officially part of Real Madrid's history. He is rightfully the most decorated Real Madrid manager, having had perhaps the two greatest successful spells of any manager in club history.
His departure from Los Blancos occurred at a particularly bad time. He was consistently failing to deliver good results and had exhausted all techniques available to him to make this team a success.
After taking over as Brazil manager, the Italian met with the press and recounted the exact moment he believed it was time to leave Real Madrid and pursue the long-pending offer from Brazil.
When asked about the reason he left Madrid and what time exactly he felt the need to go, Ancelotti said: "The results haven't been what we expected. The team's play wasn't great either. It was time to do something. After the tie against Arsenal, we talked about it and decided. It was something we could see coming. The team wasn't in good shape, and that's when we all realized it was best for Real Madrid to look for us and for me to look at Brazil."
Carlo Ancelotti's exit was not stunning at all, as everyone saw it coming
I believe it is commonly accepted that Ancelotti's awful performance against Arsenal sealed his fate, and his statements have just verified this supposition.
The two legs were simply too bad to watch for a club of this caliber, which has some of the best players in the world.
There was a lot of talk about the players making a comeback before the second leg, but they performed even worse afterward. Carlo Ancelotti played a significant part in achieving the disgrace. His strategies were outpaced, his techniques were undone, and his goals were rendered ineffective.
And I feel, for one thing, that his departure occurred at the ideal time for Xabi Alonso to become available. The Spaniard was receiving offers from some of the top teams other than Real Madrid, and while he had previously turned them down in order to await Madrid's call, he may not have done so this time until Los Blancos came calling.
Not to add that Ancelotti will always be an important part of Real Madrid's wonderful past, remembered with affection by the fans and a sense of thanks and respect for the legend.