"I built the best squad. I did not pick the 23 best French players." Those were the words of France boss Didier Deschamps when he announced his squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, via ESPN FC's Pablo S. Torre.
It came in response to not selecting the likes of Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri for the tournament in Brazil, and over the next two months, he will have to do it all again as Les Bleus go into the 2016 UEFA European Championships as one of the favourites.
At the start of the season, when France beat Portugal 1-0 at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, the optimism around the squad was focused on the likes of Lyon's Nabil Fekir, Geoffrey Kondogbia of Inter Milan, plus the veteran duo of Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena.