European Football: Ancelotti looks to bring the good times back to Madrid, while Blanc has much to prove

Carlo Ancelotti has been announced as the new manager of Real Madrid

With the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid are looking to remove the poisonous atmosphere that has permeated throughout the club. Meanwhile, Laurent Blanc has a lot of doubters to prove wrong as he makes to move to Paris to replace the Italian...

Finally Carlo Ancelotti is coach of Real Madrid. It's been over a month now since he revealed during the French PFA's end of season awards ceremony that he had asked Paris Saint-Germain for permission to leave the club. 

And yet there's a sense that the wait for him at the Bernabeu has been much longer. 

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has admired Ancelotti for years. He revealed as much in an interview with Marca a fortnight ago. 

"Once I went to Milan and (their chief executive) Adriano Galliani invited me into the dressing room to meet the team and introduce me to Ancelotti," he recalled. 

"I remember that introduction with a lot of affection. (Ancelotti) even gave me a kiss. After him all the players came to say hello and gave me a kiss too. It was very curious. They were like a family." 

That atmosphere is what Perez wants Ancelotti to recreate at Real. There were too many arguments in the White House under Jose Mourinho. Some members of the Real family were no longer speaking to each other. 

This was the risk Perez had taken when he hired Mourinho. Many thought he'd entered into a pact with the devil, that he was prepared to compromise everything Real held sacred if it meant beating Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.

By the end, they could no longer recognise themselves. You got the sense that Real couldn't stand what they'd become. And so, the moment has arrived to go back to their traditions and values. Ancelotti is much more in line with them than Mourinho ever was.

He's affable, funny and doesn't take himself too seriously. He's hard not to like. He even made Chelsea likeable. Rather than seek confrontation, Ancelotti tries to cajole and get along with everyone where and when he can. He's dignified and something of a diplomat. 

That's the image Real want to present to the world again. 

Ancelotti of course has experience working for demanding presidents like Perez and players with big personalities like Cristiano Ronaldo. He's kept Silvio Berlusconi and Roman Abramovich happy, not to mention Didier Drogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

His teams play good football too. 

Remember his Milan with Pirlo, Seedorf, Rui Costa and then Kaka (with whom he'll of course be reunited)? Ancelotti reached three Champions League finals at Milan with them and won the competition twice. 

Landing La Decima, the 10th such trophy, at Real, something that Mourinho was unable to deliver during his three years in Madrid and is therefore considered, by some, to be a failure, represents the Holy Grail to any incoming manager and for Ancelotti it's no different. 

A league champion in three different countries, Real offer the shot at a fourth. Ancelotti ended a 19-year wait for a championship at PSG, and while his time at the Parc des Princes wasn't easy despite the vast amounts of money spent, he'll be a hard act to follow. 

Meanwhile, the appointment of Laurent Blanc as his successor has been described as underwhelming, though that's a touch unfair.

Blanc won the league and cup with Bordeaux in 2009, even reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2010. At times he got France to play football that was very easy on the eye too and went on a 23-match unbeaten run, which wasn't too shabby at all.  

So why the indifference? 

Well, after reports linked PSG with approaches to high profile managers from Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez and Guus Hiddink to Michael Laudrup, AVB, Fabio Capello and Frank Rijkaard, there's a belief that he was a last resort and by the same token a backward step as the club attempt to push on in Europe and hold off the challenge of Monaco at home.  

It's up to Blanc to prove the doubters wrong. 

Real Madrid to win the 2013/14 Champions League - 7.26/1
Paris St Germain to win the 2013/14 Champions League - 24.023/1