“No salt. No anything. I snuck in some tea bags.”
Arsene Wenger is famously credited for transforming nutrition in the Premier League. His arrival at Arsenal meant no more midweek pints, no more fish and chips after dinner and, somewhat controversially, strict rules on hot drinks.
There are conflicting stories on Wenger’s tea policy, some players recall him implementing rules on how to stir sugar into tea, while Ian Wright claims Wenger banned tea bags completely.
Speaking on Friday’s Graham Norton Show, the former Arsenal and Crystal Palace striker told a story about how Dennis Bergkamp persuaded him not to break Wenger’s rule on tea.
“Were you one of those guys who was really unhappy with all the new dietary requirements, all the discipline he introduced?” Norton asked.
“I was devastated. You’re talking about a black man who needs seasoning on his food,” Wright said.
“No salt. No anything. All we could do was drink water and eat… Like the chicken was just boiled, and it just looked wrong.
“Couldn’t have tea. I remember there was a time, I used to share a room with Dennis Bergkamp, and Dennis is the greatest player I’ve ever played with.
“We were total opposites, chalk and cheese in terms of personalities.
“Once we started doing it, Dennis did it right to the max. If the boss said you drink a quarter pint of water, that’s what he would do. I would drink a full pint.
“I remember, I snuck in some tea bags. Dennis said, ‘is that tea bags?’, I said ‘yeah’.
“He said, ‘but the boss doesn’t want us to drink tea.’ I said, ‘yeah but he doesn’t know, what’s he gonna say?'”
Wright then explains how Bergkamp persuaded him to change his mind.
“‘So the whole team’s doing it, but you’re not gonna do it?'” Wright recalled Bergkamp saying. “‘When we need you most, you’re probably going to let us down because.. you’re letting us down.’
“So in the end, I didn’t have the tea,” Wright said. “Because, at the end of the day, what we went on to do, with that team, because of him, is because we all adhered to what he wanted us to do.
“He’s an amazing man,” Wright said of his former mentor.
Watch the full clip below.
