Carlo Ancelotti is history at Bayern Munich.

On Thursday, following Bayern’s 3-0 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain – its biggest loss in the Champions League’s group stage in 21 years – the German club parted company with Ancelotti as a result of internal discussions. Willy Sagnol will take charge of training and act as caretaker coach for its game at Hertha Berlin on Sunday.

“Our team’s performances since the start of the season have not met expectations,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Bayern’s executive board chairman, said. “The match in Paris clearly showed we had to take immediate action. Hasan Salihamidzic and I met Carlo today for full and frank discussions where we informed him of our decision. I’d like to thank Carlo for his time working with us and I’m sorry about the way it has developed. Carlo is my friend and he will remain so, but we had to take a professional decision in the interests of FC Bayern. I expect the team to produce a positive response and show absolute determination to achieve our targets for the season.”

Bayern also parted company with Ancelotti’s staff, including Davide Ancelotti, Giovanni Mauri, Francesco Mauri, and Mino Fulco.

Ancelotti replaced Pep Guardiola as Bayern’s manager at the end of the 2015-16 season, and guided the club to the 2016-17 Bundesliga title.

Bayern’s first six games of the 2017-18 Bundesliga season were highlighted by a 2-0 defeat at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and a 2-2 draw versus VfL Wolfsburg.

Speaking after Bayern’s loss at PSG, Ancelotti declared: “We had to attack and PSG just waited for the chance to play on the break. We had some good chances but were unable to find the right balance to prevent counter-attacks. That was the key factor. We shouldn’t be surprised PSG play to their strengths when we go 1-0 down straightaway.”

No manager in Bayern’s history can claim to have been sacked as early in the season as Ancelotti, who beat Jupp Heynckes, dismissed on Oct. 4, 1991. Only four managers parted ways with the club before season’s end, including Felix Magath, Jurgen Klinsmann, and Louis van Gaal.

Carlo Ancelotti got the sack Thursday, and for all the talk of his failings at Bayern Munich, the state of a rapidly aging squad is largely being overlooked.

Critics of the affable Italian point to a penchant for leaving jobs in or around the second year in charge, while others identify just four league titles in nearly two decades in charge of some of Europe’s biggest clubs as a sign of Ancelotti’s shortcomings.

Related: Bayern Munich sacks Ancelotti after defeat at PSG

Often the scapegoat for underperforming squads, managers like Ancelotti fall on the sword as a facile alternative to widespread squad overhaul, and while most of the talk Thursday will focus on the gaffer’s missteps, the players deserve some of the blame.

Age is more than a number

Talismanic leaders Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso both retired in the summer, and a core of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, and Arturo Vidal are all either 30 and in the decline of celebrated careers or rapidly approaching it.

That’s not to say world-class footballers can’t excel beyond their 30th birthdays, though it’s worth noting amid countless comparisons between Ancelotti and his beloved predecessor Pep Guardiola: The Catalan gaffer had a dynamic squad rife with youthful vigour that had just won the treble under Jupp Heynckes. Ancelotti, the only manager with three Champions League crowns, not so much.

With age comes the increased possibility of injuries, and like a bee sting on a rash, one problem compounds the other.

First-choice centre-back pairing Boateng and Hummels both missed chunks of last season, as did Robben and Ribery, and the issue of long-term ailments to key players has carried over to this season with skipper Manuel Neuer’s protracted absence due to a broken foot.

In the wake of Wednesday’s thrashing at Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “It’s a very painful defeat, a defeat we have to analyse and after which we’ll have to talk about clearly and draw the consequences because what we saw was not Bayern Munich.”

The consequence is that Ancelotti is out of work, but considering the state of a squad in the infantile stages of transition and the failure to adequately replace those who have retired or are in decline, perhaps it’s time Rummenigge considers his role in the current state of Bayern Munich.

A scarcity of academy products

The task of replacing Lahm and Alonso is like substituting salt for sugar in your morning coffee. Even so, Joshua Kimmich and summer signing Corentin Tolisso have been pegged as successors to the influential pairing, and only time will tell if the young duo can fill their boots.

Colossal centre-back Niklas Sule, Sebastian Rudy, and James Rodriguez were all brought in to refresh the squad’s make-up, and the hope is that Kingsley Coman can bounce back from an injury-riddled campaign to merit his permanent move from Juventus.

These additions appear underwhelming, and with a rapidly aging squad, some attention should be turned towards the academy.

For the sake of a topical comparison, PSG has also experienced a shortage of academy graduates, shipping off the likes of once-promising budding talents Jonathan Ikone and Odsonne Edouard. For Wednesday’s victors in the French capital, the failure to promote means very little when hundreds of millions can be splashed on a teenager like Kylian Mbappe.

Bayern is opting for a comparatively modest approach, and despite five league titles on the trot papering over the cracks, it’s simply not working, and that’s not entirely Ancelotti’s fault. Again, fingers should be pointed at Rummenigge, general manager Uli Hoeness, and the rest of the Bayern brass.

Going forward

There appears to be a deeply rooted institutional issue at Bayern Munich that is being overlooked in light of Ancelotti’s sacking. Comments in the press from the likes of Lewandowski and Ribery point to an attitudinal headache, while a string of recent additions hint at abating ambitions.

Willy Sagnol will take the reins on an interim basis, and if reports that the club’s marquee players forced Ancelotti out have any veracity, anticipate an upswing in form both domestically and on the continent paired with smiles on the faces of Bayern’s most discontent.

It was never going to be easy to succeed Guardiola, and had Bayern not gotten the wrong end of several decisions during last year’s Champions League semi-finals with Real Madrid, an alternate history could have favoured Ancelotti.

Regardless, on Thursday Ancelotti became the scapegoat for a European heavyweight mired by a relative hiccup when really the blame should arrive at the doorstep of several of the club’s high-profile pieces.

UEFA’s answer to dwindling interest in international friendlies began to take shape with Tuesday’s unveiling of the format for the inaugural Nations League, which begins next September following the conclusion of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The European governing body confirmed the teams that can potentially compete against each other after breaking up UEFA’s 55 members into four leagues based on the continent’s National Team Coefficient Rankings that were confirmed when the 2018 World Cup qualifying group stage came to a conclusion Monday.

The top two leagues will be split further into groups of four teams, League C will have one group of three and three groups of four, and League D will feature four groups of four. The composition of each group will be unveiled during a draw Jan. 24 .

The winner from each group in League A will move on to the UEFA Nations League Finals in June 2019.

At the end of each phase – with cycles spanning almost a full year – four teams from leagues B through D will be promoted to a higher tier, while four teams with the poorest records in leagues A through C will be relegated.

Furthermore, the competition will be another route for which countries can qualify for the European Championship, as 16 group winners from leagues A through D that don’t qualify through the conventional process will have a chance to reach the tournament by competing in play-off matches in March 2020.

The Nations League group stage will delay the start of the European Championship qualifying stage from September 2018 until March 2019. Countries will be split into 10 groups of five or six, with two teams from each discovering their fates at the conclusion of qualifying in November.

League A and League B will each include 12 teams, while League C and League D will feature 16.

Here is the full league breakdown:

League A

Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands

Pot 1: Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain

Pot 2: France, England, Switzerland, Italy

Pot 3: Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands

League B

Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey

Pot 1: Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia

Pot 2: Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pot 3: Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey

League C

Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

Pot 1: Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia

Pot 2: Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway

Pot 3: Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland

Pot 4: Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

League D

Azerbaijan, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

Pot 1: Azerbaijan, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia

Pot 2: Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg

Pot 3: Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta

Pot 4: Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

Important Dates

Matchday 1: 6-8 September 2018
Matchday 2: 9-11 September 2018
Matchday 3: 11-13 October 2018
Matchday 4: 14-16 October 2018
Matchday 5: 15-17 November 2018
Matchday 6: 18-20 November 2018
Finals draw: early December 2018
Finals: 5-9 June 2019
UEFA EURO 2020 play-off draw: 22 November 2019
UEFA EURO 2020 play-offs: 26-31 March 2020

If there were any doubts over Alvaro Morata’s ability to integrate himself at Chelsea, they were cast aside over the last two matches as the 24-year-old scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Stoke City, and his first Champions League goal in blue away to Atletico Madrid.

Such has been the impact Morata has made for Antonio Conte since joining the club for a hefty £58-million fee during the summer. The Spanish international has quickly become a fan favourite at Stamford Bridge and as such, he does not regret making the move out of Real Madrid.

“I came to Chelsea because one club and one coach believed in me,” Morata said, as quoted by Sky Sports’ Michael Kelleher. “I’m very happy.”

Related – More than an heir: Morata proving to be Chelsea’s most complete striker

Morata came into a team needing a centre-forward as Diego Costa pushed for his eventual exit back to Atletico Madrid. Costa and fellow former Blues striker Fernando Torres could only watch, however, as Morata headed home an equalising effort off a pinpoint cross by Eden Hazard. The two combined masterfully to spearhead Chelsea’s attack at the Wanda Metropolitano.

It was the first time he and Hazard played together for a significant period of time and Morata was left more than impressed with his teammate.

“It’s not difficult playing with this kind of player,” Morata said of Hazard. “He’s one of the three best players in the world. It’s easy for me playing with him.”

One must wonder how high Morata’s numbers will rise if it is indeed easy to play alongside Hazard; he has done quite well in the Belgian winger’s absence as Hazard worked to recover from a broken ankle. Morata has seven goals in as many matches for the Blues, as well as a pair of Premier League assists.