Terrible news for Deschamps and France

From a football operations point of view, this is exactly why national teams keep a strong assistant structure and why the FFF announcement about Guy Stéphan stepping in makes sense, because the Norway match still has to be played and the camp cannot simply freeze. But that is where the analysis ends, because the actual story is one of the most painful things a person can go through and it is happening in public to someone who has spent years under pressure and scrutiny and now has to deal with grief while the football world comments from a distance. It makes all the usual noise around managers, systems and results feel ridiculous, and honestly if anyone wants to turn this into a chance to clown France or Deschamps then they can absolutely get in the bin because that is some proper soulless behaviour and I am sick of people acting like every moment has to become content
 
France should be fine for one match with the current staff. The bigger point is simply that the federation has handled the situation in the only sensible way.
 
I know this is a human story first and foremost but if we are talking about the squad then a lot of the focus is going to land on the players having to absorb this and keep going and that is not easy at all because Deschamps is such a central figure for France and when someone like that steps away suddenly it changes the whole mood around camp and I think people underestimate how much these things affect the dressing room even if the staff say everything is normal and honestly anyone making it about his management record or whether Guy Stéphan is good enough for the Norway game is missing the point completely because the bloke has just lost his mother and the rest is noise and some of the takes floating around are just grim as hell
 
Honestly this is one of those bits of news where you open the thread expecting a normal football update and instead you get reminded that the sport is tiny compared with actual life because the man has lost his mother and had to leave the squad in the US and that is all that really matters, the Norway match can wait and the assistant can take the side because that is what the setup is for, but some people will still start waffling about tactics and legacy and whether France are now weaker and it just feels so hollow when you think about what he is going through and I swear football discourse has become completely cooked because every serious moment gets dragged into some argument by lads who cannot sit still for five minutes without trying to be clever and it is just sad and annoying and grim all at once
 
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