When England’s footballers arrived back at their World Cup base camp in Doha after beating Senegal, they were greeted by dozens of dancing hotel workers, who waved St George flags, threw confetti and looked genuinely pleased to be seeing them at 3am. The feeling was clearly mutual. Soon Jack Grealish, Luke Shaw and Kyle Walker were pogoing blissfully alongside them. And, as their heads bopped up and down, it was hard to escape the sense of this being a very different England setup.
Earlier, in a seemingly throwaway remark, John Stones gave a further insight into the team’s culture. “We spoke in our meeting about not letting any standards drop,” the defender said. “Whether it might be putting out socks the right way for the kit men – we get on at each other for things like that because we have created those standards.”
