Playing the firefighter on duty, Didier Deschamps knows how to do it. This responsibility does not appear in black and white in the coach’s specifications, but it nevertheless falls within his duties. Most recent illustration? His latest outing in an interview given to M6 in order to clarify Rayan Cherki’s “controversial” phrase.
“ We will not go to the World Cup as favorites, we will go to crush everyone », indicated the Manchester City player on the microphone of TF1 Thursday evening after the defeat of the Blues against Ivory Coast (1-2). A seemingly innocuous statement, intended above all to display the ambitions of the Blues, but quickly became viral on social networks.
Deschamps puts out the fire
Friday, the newspaper The Team revealed that this outing had sparked a form of incomprehension among the French staff, with Didier Deschamps even going so far as to take Cherki privately. After congratulating him on his match, the coach would have warned him about the consequences of such an outing. The coach would also have made his player understand the potential interpretations of this type of statement, both among the public and among opponents. This evening, DD publicly spoke out to evacuate the subject.
“ When he (Cherki) says that: “we are not favorites, but we are going to go there to crush everyone”, it is not to say that we are above favorites, because that would mean that we are stronger than everyone. No no. It’s: “we’re going to do everything.” But it will happen anyway, to get to the top, we will have to beat everyone who is in front of us. We know the first three (Senegal, Iraq, Norway), after that we don’t know. But let’s stay focused on the first three », Indicates Deschamps, then relaunched on the risks to which the players expose themselves by speaking. “It’s interpretation, it’s part of life. I’m going to tell you a sentence, there are undoubtedly a lot of people who will listen to the interview, and they will perhaps have a different interpretation. » A fine mediator.
