Olympique Marseille v Manchester United: Didier Deschamps keeps a lid on manic Marseille

For one of world football’s most garlanded figures, Didier Deschamps merits more than to be forever saddled with the dismissive moniker which Eric Cantona bestowed on him.

Didier Deschamps keeps a lid on manic Marseille
Quietly impessive: Didier Deschamps brought Marseille their first title since he was a player there Credit: Photo: GETTY

After all, hasn’t the old “water carrier” dealt almost exclusively in lugging around methuselahs of champagne ever since?

So as Olympique Marseille’s coach sits at their training ground looking forward to another European joust with Manchester United, I am intrigued to know whether Cantona’s comments before a tie between United and Juventus had stuck in his craw for these 15 years.

Legend, after all, has it that he was enraged to read the eve-of-match rant in a French newspaper from his old France team-mate that “Deschamps will never be anything more than a porteur d’eau.

You can find players like him on every street corner. He likes to act like a monk and a moralist but he’ll end up wallowing in every kind of vice”.

“Well, I was the water carrier,” shrugs Deschamps. “I never pretended to be a Messi or a Zidane. I wasn’t a great player but I played in great teams. And great teams are not just created by the architect but also by bricklayers and hod carriers.

“A water carrier? The tag never annoyed or affected me; it was just water off a duck’s back. It’s always too easy to criticise people. I really don’t care what people say about me. I live my life, try my best; some people like me, some people don’t.

I always gave my answer on the pitch.

“I never saw Eric afterwards to talk about it because our paths never crossed. But, from knowing him quite well for our two years in Marseille, I knew why he said that about me; it’s because he believed I didn’t want him in the French squad and that it was largely down to me that he did not play in the 1998 World Cup.” Not true, he is adamant.

Incidentally, Deschamps did give his answer on the pitch that night. Juve won 1-0 and the anti-Eric did his usual, unfussy defensive patrolling and organisational job which offered the blueprint for a generation of Makelele types.

History tells us Eric strutted off into kung fu-fighting, trawler-following, movie-making myth but Deschamps just ploughed on winning. Two European Cups, World Cup, European Championship. Everything, basically.

“Well, as a player I definitely was a born winner,” he says. “But as a coach, I’m still looking for the formula. It will be very difficult to win as many trophies as I did in my playing days but as we say here, impossible n’est pas Francais — impossible isn’t a French word!”

It seems comical that he lives by Napoleon’s celebrated observation because the short, squat figure still has a general’s air about him when you watch him, hands behind back, quietly overseeing training at Marseille.

You cannot mistake who is in charge. So far, he shrugs that he has done “quite well” in his seven-year management career.

He is too modest; the idea that impossible n’est pas Deschamps has quickly taken hold after his considerable achievements of taking Monaco to the Champions League final, dragging scandal-hit Juventus back to Serie A credibility and now turning his old club Marseille into champions again after a 17-year eternity.

That is why, at 42, Liverpool came in for him in the summer as a replacement for Rafael Benítez. “It was very flattering to be approached by a club historique,” he recalls.

“And very difficult to turn down. But I felt I couldn’t go against my word to the Marseille president, and to players I’d brought in, when it all occurred two days before training for the season started. And after the national team rebellion in South Africa, a true disaster for our game, I didn’t want to be seen contributing to the whole debacle of French football.

“The shirt has to be respected and what those players did was absolutely unacceptable, although I honestly don’t think they realised what they were doing. They were in a bubble, isolated from what was being said in France. They behaved like children.”

Deschamps would never have done it. If he sounds like a man of honour, that is exactly what France believes of the man who gave a country its Bobby Moore moment. And in Marseille, he is half-deity, the young captain who in 1993 led Olympique to become the only French club ever to win the European Cup and who has now returned triumphantly, like the grey prodigal.

This is no easy club to manage. Passionate, volatile fans who can turn on you in an instant, Machiavellian club politics, sinister outside influences with a history of Mafia involvement.

Reporters at the training ground cheerily point out where Robert Pires’s car was once smashed up and he had to be smuggled out.

But since Deschamps returned? All peace and light, almost boring, they laugh. “It’s true, it is crazy in Marseille, and being a manager here is more difficult than most places,” laughs Deschamps, when I suggest that if he can manage here he can manage anywhere.

“When we win everything’s absolutely marvellous, and when we lose everything’s an absolute disaster. And the players, of course, do get affected by that.

“But I’m naturally a tranquil person and I do bring calm to my team, to my staff. I try to moderate things. My role is to guide the younger players, and staff, calmly through troubled times.” He sounds more like a shepherd than a Napoleon.

“I’m rigorous, demanding, thorough, but I’m not a dictator. The important thing in my eyes is not about being extra nice or extra cold but just to be credible as a manager, as I was as a player.

"Football’s my passion — I’ve watched every minute of every United game since Christmas – but I’m not obsessed” he insists when I inquire about the legend that he stays up until 3am studying videos of the opposition.

“Sorry, but at 3am I’m sleeping!” he says, breaking into English for the first time. He speaks it excellently after his year at Chelsea — “English football was a big culture shock for me but it was a great experience” –- but still insists the interview be conducted in French; here is a man who likes to be in control.

Like his United counterpart. “For me, Ferguson is the benchmark for all coaches,” he says. “I’ve been lucky enough to have spent some time with him — things are quite easy with him, he speaks a bit of French and loves good French wine — and I’ve learned a lot from him.” But he would covet Sir Alex’s luxury of having “time to build something”.

For the moment, that club is Marseille. The Basque has built a team in his image: physical, well organised, solid and capable of giving United a scare when screamed on by 60,000 crazed souls in the intimidating Stade Velodrome.

Yet it is hard to believe that the old port’s hero will not, sooner rather than later, be moving on to one of Europe’s elite.

Thinking back about the Anfield chance, he shrugs: “I hope another opportunity like that will come. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, a year, two years who knows?”

And the France manager’s job? “Maybe one day, but I’m not obsessed by the idea. Maybe it would be the last step in my career.” And what a step.

He begins to laugh; the thought of being the only man after Franz Beckenbauer to both captain and coach a World Cup-winning team would evidently appeal. Of course, there is a lot of water to be carried under the bridge before then.

Didier Deschamps

Playing career

  • Marseille (1989-94)
    2 League titles, 1 Champions League
  • Juventus (1994-1999)
    3 League titles, 1 Italian Cup, 1 Italian Super Cup, 1 Champions League, 1 Uefa Super Cup, 1 Intertoto Cup
  • Chelsea (1999-2000)
    1 FA Cup
  • France (1989-2000)
    1998 World Cup winner
    2000 European Championship winner

Managerial career

  • Monaco (2001-05)
    1 French League Cup
  • Juventus (2006-2007)
    1 Serie B title
  • Juventus (2009-present)
    1 League title, 1 League Cup