I disagree. He wasn’t good for 8 straight years. I think 11-14 he was top class. His Madrid spell was a disaster.
A disaster? Really?
Here's his Real Madrid contributions playing mainly as a winger:
13/14 season Played 3329 minutes - 22 goals 19 assists
14/15 season Played 4038 minutes - 17 goals 12 assists
15/16 season Played 2382 minutes - 19 goals 15 assists
16/17 season Played 1936 minutes - 9 goals 6 assists
17/18 season Played 2362 minutes - 21 goals 7 assists
18/19 season Played 2619 minutes - 14 goals 7 assists
19/20 season Played 1260 minutes - 3 goals 2 assists
A goalcontribution every 100 minutes through his 7 seasons (105 goals and 68 assists total for RM)
Winning LaLiga twice
CL 4 times
Copa del Rey and Super Copa once each
UEFA Super cup twice
World club Cup 3 times.
Scoring a worldie winning goals in a CL final.
He did have some dry periods, struggled with injuries and seemed to lack motivation in the end, but his spell at RM was pretty far from a disaster.
Who would want that RM career when they could spend 7 years winning exactly nothing with Spurs in the same period?