Former Liverpool ace Stephen Warnock says he and his team-mates once ended up in prison after a boozy pre-season night out.
The 42-year-old, who also played for Blackburn, Aston Villa and Leeds, was on loan at Coventry City during the 2003/04 season. Manager Gary McAllister put the players through their paces over the summer thanks to a particularly gruelling training regime, but let them blow off steam with an end-of-tour squad night on the lash.
Speaking on the Under The Cosh podcast, Warnock says the p***-up descended into chaos after the players were barred from a nightclub. "We were on tour [in Germany], and we'd had a tough pre-season so [McAllister] said we needed to have a bit of team bonding," the former full back remembered.
"We had almost like a raft with a bar on it going down a canal, and we were just going to go out and have a day on the booze and get to know each other. Anyway, we've gone out on the p*** and later on we were like, 'Can we go out tonight?', and [McAllister] said, 'Absolutely, make sure everyone's there'.
"So a few of us wandered down to the local nightclub, it was like a five minute walk, and we get chatting to the doorman or the owner or whoever it was and we were like, 'We're a football team from England, we've got about 30 lads, are we alright to come in tonight with shorts on and stuff?'
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"And he was like, 'Yeah yeah no problem'. So we go back to our hotel and we're drinking for few more hours, and when we get back to the club he said, 'You're not coming in', and we were like, 'Why not? We spoke to you face to face', and he was like, 'Nah nah'."
Tensions quickly rose, and reached boiling point when one of Warnock's team-mates, David Pipe, squared up to the doorman, who responded by striking him in the face with his nightstick... which (sarcasm alert) went down well.
Warnock spent the 2003/04 season on loan at Coventry City (Getty Images)"The fella's just whipped a cosh out and smacked him [Pipe]," Warnock remembered, "and it'd have knocked anyone else out, killed them, but he just stood there, took a blow to his face and then he's just knocked [the doorman] out, Pipey just floored the fella."
The players, understandably, tucked tail and ran, but the police were quickly on their tail. After a solo drunken ramble through the streets, Warnock found some of his team-mates catching their breath at a petrol station.
"I found like five of the lads and we were all buzzing thinking we'd got away with it. But then a riot van comes round the corner and lashes us in the back and all the lads are in there, they've all been caught. They then put us two separate cells next to each other, but there was only one toilet.
Warnock revealed all on the Under The Cosh podcast (UndrTheCosh/YouTube)"Callum Davenport, he was on loan from West Ham at the time, he's sat on the toilet having a s***, and one of the lads went 'f***ing hurry up I need a s*** myself, be quick'. So he wipes his a***, and there's only one toilet roll so he chucks it out the cell, and the lads are like, 'you f***ing b*****d', fuming. It was a nightmare."
Warnock began his career at Liverpool, but didn't get first team minutes until joining Bradford on loan in 2002, after his loan spell at Coventry, he spent two seasons in Liverpool's first team squad before leaving to join Blackburn in 2007, with 67 appearances for the Anfield club under his belt.
A successful stint at Villa Park followed before Warnock dropped into the Championship, initially with Bolton on loan, but later with permanent moves to Leeds and Derby. Spells at Wigan, Burton Albion and Bradford followed before Warnock called time on his career at the end of the 2017/18 season.
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