Bizarre explanation offered for why Burnley boss Sean Dyche's voice is so gravelly

Sean Dyche has one of the most distinctive voices in football and one of his former team-mates has offered a bizarre reason as to how he developed his earthy tones.

Soren Andersen, who played with the Burnley manager at Bristol City during the 1998-99 campaign, says an unusual ritual could be the root cause.

He claims Dyche would eat worms before every training session with the Ashton Gate club in scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Bushtucker Trial.

Andersen told Danish podcast Fodboldministeriet: “He had exactly the same voice.

“Maybe the voice comes from eating rainworms (Danish label for earthworms), because every time we trained, he used to eat rainworms.

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“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.

“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.”

Dyche has won huge acclaim this season for leading Burnley to their best ever start to a Premier League campaign.