When a cat has cornered a mouse and appears to be toying with its prey, it isn’t actually being cruel so much as it is planning and practicing all the ways in which it may finally kill it off.
We are, it almost goes without saying, speaking about France at the 2026 World Cup here. Les Bleus have scored at least three goals in their last four games and, each time, looked an awful lot like they might have run the score up further, if only they hadn’t run out of time, energy or interest.
And yet France, extraordinarily, also seem to still be very much working out what they even are at this World Cup. Like the student in art school who plainly has more talent in his pinky toe than the rest of his class can muster in the aggregate, but who is still tinkering with the basics of form and style.
Didier Deschamps’ France are going through a radical transformation before our very eyes.
Related: Kylian Mbappé at the double as France swat aside Sweden in World Cup masterclass