Every two years, France exits a tournament. Every two years, the French press asks the same question. Should Deschamps stay.
Every two years, the answer is yes.
This is not about results, although the results are excellent. It is about a deeper truth that French football has internalised. Deschamps is what works when the squad is full of egos. He is what holds together when the talent is supposed to win games on its own. He is the absence of drama in a federation that produces drama as efficiently as it produces players.
The press asks the wrong question. The right question is what would replace him. Zidane would not take it. Henry has not earned it. No active French manager has the squad's respect at the level Deschamps does. The job needs someone the squad cannot dismiss. That list is short.
Deschamps is also the man who has won the World Cup and reached two finals and won the Nations League. The press treats this as somehow insufficient, because France was supposed to win every tournament forever. The bar for the French national team is unreasonable, and Deschamps is the man holding the ceiling up while everyone else complains about how low it is.
He will be there for the next tournament. He will probably exit at a quarter-final or semi-final. The press will ask whether he should stay. He will stay.
The cycle is itself the story.