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29th June 2016
02:59pm BST

According to Daniel Taylor:
"England's players stayed at the £500-a-night Auberge du Jeu de Paume, a hotel with two Michelin stars that is described as “the epitome of French finesse and art de vivre” but there was still a complaint on the first night that the duvets could be plumper."The players were also reportedly fed canned lines for media interviews, and their stuffed lion, which individual players took turns carrying around, had it's own accreditation.
No team bar England has a set of players who are given their lines, like homework, before interviews instead of being trusted to talk for themselves. Nobody else has made one of Euro 2016’s training grounds look like a woodland prison, surrounded by 7ft-high fences, police lookouts and flying drones. "The players’ idea of fun was to take turns carrying round a cuddly lion that had its own accreditation lanyard indicating its name was Kit. One photograph showed Hodgson in conversation with Jack Wilshere on the pitch in Saint-Étienne before the Slovakia game. Wilshere had Kit strapped to his back and it was tempting to wonder what might have happened if anyone had tried this kind of PR gimmickry with, say, Sir Alex Ferguson or Brian Clough. A swift jab in the privates from Cloughie, almost certainly."

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