Mauricio Pochettino and Kylian Mbappe are set to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer after their Champions League curse struck again.
The Qatari-owned club has spent over £1billion on players since taking over in 2011 in pursuit of European domination.
But the capitulation to Real Madrid is just the latest Champions League nightmare for the biggest club in France - and there will be consequences.
All PSG coaches have the mission to win Europe’s premier club competition and Pochettino has now failed twice.
The Argentine, who took Tottenham to the 2019 final, has the Paris club 13 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 - but that is not enough after losing two domestic cups this season.
He is out of contract in June 2023 and suffers a strained relationship with the French media and sporting director Leonardo.
His summer departure - with Manchester United and Spurs both interested - now seems inevitable.
Leonardo, who had wanted to appoint Max Allegri last year, hardly gave his fellow South American a big vote of confidence after Karim Benzema’s second-half hat-trick at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
“We shouldn’t throw everything in the bin,” said the Brazilian. “We shouldn’t start from scratch after every loss. The objective is to win the Champions League and until half-time we were fine.
"We should stay together. Pochettino is still part of the project for this season. It’s not the time to think about that.”
But this latest collapse goes beyond Pochettino or blaming referees and speaks about the culture of PSG where superstar players are bigger than the club and any coach.
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Manchester City have also failed, so far, to buy the Champions League but the Abu Dhabi-owned club has a clear structure and playing identity with Pep Guardiola in undoubted charge.
The Spanish media celebrated the victory of 13-times winners Real Madrid with AS claiming: “The force of history exceeds that of money”.
Mundo Deportivo added: “PSG do not deserve Mbappe” after the World Cup winner scored in each leg but still finished on the losing side.
The Frenchman, 23, is out of contract in the summer and is expected to join Real Madrid after the Spanish league leaders failed with three transfer bids last summer.
The departure of the best player in the world would be another humiliation for Qatar in the year they host the World Cup.
PSG invested big last summer to sign Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Gigi Donnarumma, Giorginio Wijnaldum and Achraf Hakimi only to add another sorry chapter to their recent European history.
In 2017 Unai Emery’s team won the home leg 4-0 against Barcelona but then lost the return 6-1 in the original 'la remontada' (the comeback) at the Camp Nou to a team starring Messi and Neymar.
PSG broke the world transfer record to sign the Brazilian and also Kylian Mbappe that summer, but suffered another painful exit to Marcus Rashford’s late penalty for Manchester United in 2019.
Thomas Tuchel took them to the 2020 final before losing to Bayern Munich. But last season Pochettino’s side beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich before losing to Manchester City in the semi when Mbappe was not fit.
The irony for PSG is that their last two coaches - Tuchel and Emery - went on to win Europe’s two club trophies for Chelsea and Villareal last season.
Zinedine Zidane, who won four Champions League with Real Madrid, is the favourite to follow if Didier Deschamps decides not to leave the France job after the World Cup.
