Sean Dyche's voice is surely one of the most distinctive to grace the Premier League. You may be forgiven for believing that his gravelly tone is down to the odd cigarette.
Soren Andersen, a former teammate of Dyche's at Bristol City in the late 90s, has a rather unexpected explanation.
Speaking on Danish football podcast Fodboldministeriet, which is hosted by ex-Blackburn player Lars Jacobsen, Andersen disclosed Dyche's penchant for eating "rainworms", the Danish term for earthworms.
He had exactly the same voice.
Maybe the voice comes from eating rainworms, because every time we trained, he used to eat rainworms.
Yes, he did. It was horrible, I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was like: ‘whoops, there’s a rainworm’ and then he ate it.
It was a bit disgusting and very strange. He was a good player, and I enjoyed being around him, but the thing with the worms was really strange.
Footballers do need their protein.
According to Andersen, Dyche behaving like Bear Grylls at training was viewed as disgusting by his teammates.
"There was always these worms around. And everybody always commented on it as being disgusting and complained a bit.
“So I think maybe it was as a kind of a provocation, and to show us that it wasn’t something we should focus on or care about, he just ate one or two.
After watching Burnley play recently, Andersen wondered if Dyche takes a wander out onto the pitch for a pre-game snack.
Exactly. I thought of it the last time, I watched them play. He’ll probably walk on the pitch an hour before the others and scout for worms. Laughing.
Let me put it this way: I wouldn’t want to share lunch box with him.
