I WORK HARDER THAN DE BRUYNE: FABIAN DELPH

ST PETERSBURG: Much has been made of England’s brilliant media centre in Repino, where a bowling alley and air hockey serve as entertainment options. It is a dart board that has taken centre stage, however, with one of the players selected for media duty each day taking on a journalist over three darts. Meanwhile, sent into the media conference room, a jovial Fabian Delph declared he knew the starting XI for Monday’s opening group game against Tunisia. The conversation switched to how he has become a favourite of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on account of his work rate and Delph wasn’t about to miss the chance to take a swipe at one of his star team-mates. Does he work harder than Kevin De Bruyne? “Yeah,” Delph fired back, without hesitation. “Make sure you put that in the headline.”