Chelsea players have expressed their refusal against the dietary plans of the club’s new fitness manager employed by coach Enzo Maresca.
The players are in for a shock when they return to pre-season training with some of their favourite food and drinks in danger of being cut from the menu.
Enzo Maresca who was confirmed as Chelsea’s new head coach and has been joined by fitness coach Marcos Alvarez, who has earned a reputation for being a strict dietician at Sevilla, Tottenham, Parma and Leicester City.
It was Alvarez, working for manager Juande Ramos, who famously banned sauce, fruit juice, cake and salt and pepper at Spurs, while fried eggs were taken off the breakfast menu at Leicester during his and Maresca’s single season at the club.
Tottenham players rebelled against the strict diet imposed on them while Alvarez was at the club by getting the help of security staff to sneak out and get McDonald’s during pre-season and sending captain Ledley King to plead for a relaxation in the rules.
Maresca experienced the methods of Alvarez as a player, working under him and Ramos at Sevilla for two years before the pair left the Spanish club in 2007 to join Spurs, where they won the League Cup before being sacked after one year. It was at Parma where Maresca first hired Alvarez on to his coaching staff.
Given it is 16 years since he left Tottenham and the fact he has not worked with Ramos for 10 years, it is thought that the dietary regime of Alvarez has evolved and changed. But it is understood he did ban certain foods at Leicester last season, including fried eggs at breakfast.
Former Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino, who was well liked by the majority of the squad, kept an eye on his players’ diet, with fatty foods such as chips and pizza discouraged. But he did not take a militant stand on sauce, fruit juice, salt and pepper, and sweet treats.
That means the club’s players, some of whom are said to have expressed excitement at working under Maresca, could find some of their favourite items cut from the Chelsea menu. Those not on international duty this summer are due back on July 4.
Alvarez also made the Tottenham team shed 100 kilos and is said to be obsessive about players’ fat ratios, meaning Chelsea’s squad can expect regular weigh-ins during the summer.
Despite his strict methods, Alvarez remained a popular figure among club staff at Tottenham and players such as goalkeeper Paul Robinson and midfielder Tom Huddlestone spoke of the benefits of his methods.
Shortly after joining Tottenham with Ramos, Alvarez detailed the changes he decided to make by saying, “The truth is, the first buffet I saw, I took photographs of it because it was very interesting. Lots of sauces, a lot of cakes, chocolate muffins, a box full of sweets. So we tried to put things right.
“When we arrived, we realised that the team was carrying excess baggage. I made a very simple comparison with the Sevilla team that we had been working with and, taking into account the size of the players, the team was basically 100 kilos over. So I immediately talked to Tottenham and we set the wheels in motion to change things.”
Former Spurs players Jamie O’Hara and Darren Bent have said that the strict diet implemented by Alvarez under Ramos.
O’Hara said, “When Juande Ramos came in, he bann ed ketchup and any sauce. He was big on it. It was dry pasta, chicken and that was for the whole time he was there. We went on a pre-season trip and that was tough when there’s no sauce to anything. You’re just eating dry chicken, pasta. I remember the security guy, Alan Dixon who is still there now, used to sneak the boys out and get McDonald’s.”
“He was funny on the salt as well. No salt and pepper at dinner. It did make a difference because he did get the stats up and we were running more, but in the end you lose the players because eventually they say ‘I’ve had enough of this’.”
Bent said: “There was one meat option, one fish, and maybe plain rice and vegetables – that was it. There was no salt, no pepper… no flavour! There was no crumble, either.
