Premier League manager says he only sucks on earthworms one month after former teammate said he ate them

Burnley FC/Twitter

• A former teammate of Burnley FC manager Sean Dyche said Dyche used to eat worms.
• Dyche on Thursday clarified that he used to only suck on worms and then spit them out as a joke.

Burnley FC manager Sean Dyche has an unusual method of messing with teammates and players.

In December, Søren Andersen, a former teammate of Dyche’s on Bristol City, said on a Danish podcast that Dyche used to eat worms. Anderson said that eating the worms caused Dyche’s notoriously gravelly voice.

From The Telegraph:

“Every time we trained, he used to eat rainworms,” Anderson said.

He added: “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.”

On Thursday, Dyche was asked about Anderson’s comments and clarified that he did not eat worms — he just sucked on them as a joke.

“I’ve done this here and when I was a manager at Watford, you get one of them nice, big, juicy worms, hang it out your mouth just on the edge there,” Dyche said, then imitating swishing the worm around his mouth. “And then, of course, the worm comes out, wash your mouth out with water.

“A bit of banter with Søren, probably taken a bit too far.”

Dyche also joked that his gravelly voice comes from smoking exhaust pipes and eating gravel.

“For the record, I definitely don’t eat worms,” Dyche clarified.

Watch his explanation below: