There are two ways a squad can react when they know their manager is on his way out the door. They can switch off, start playing for the next guy, and let the whole thing turn into a circus. Or they can pull together and make sure the send-off is one nobody forgets. According to Ousmane Dembélé, France are very much in the second camp.
The Barcelona winger has made it pretty clear that Didier Deschamps heading for the exit is not some dark cloud hanging over the squad. If anything, it sounds like the opposite. Dembélé described it as a motivating force, and honestly, that is exactly what you want to hear from a senior player ahead of a World Cup. No drama, no finger-pointing, just a group of very talented footballers who want to win one for the gaffer.
Deschamps has been in charge of France since 2012, which in international management terms is basically a lifetime. He won the World Cup in 2018 and reached the final again in 2022, so the man has nothing left to prove. But there is something quite poetic about the idea of him potentially lifting the trophy one last time before walking away. Football loves that kind of story, and France have more than enough quality to make it happen.
The squad is stacked. Dembélé himself has been one of the better wingers in Europe when fully fit, and with Kylian Mbappé leading the line, France are going to frighten just about every team they come up against. The question has never really been about talent with this group. It has always been about whether they can stay focused and perform when the pressure is at its highest.
If Dembélé's comments are anything to go by, the focus is very much there. A squad united behind a common goal, wanting to honour a manager who gave them so much, is a dangerous thing to face in a tournament. France will be right up there, and rightly so.
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