Chris Sutton has been speaking about his career and time at Celtic with Open Goal on YouTube today.
Sutton goes into detail on a number of famous moments throughout his time at Paradise, including the incredible run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003.
However, some of the more illuminating comments came towards the end of the interview when Sutton lifted the lid on what went wrong during his time with Gordon Strachan.
The former striker only lasted half a season with Strachan following his appointment in 2005, eventually sold in the following January transfer window.
It’s been well known for a while that he and Strachan didn’t see eye to eye, but Sutton provided more context today, telling Open Goal: “I never wanted to leave Celtic. Not even when Strachan came in. I was happy carrying on. New ideas, new methods, that’s fine. I didn’t necessarily have an issue with Gordon up until the first day.
“I injured my cheek, it was a bad injury. My vision was impaired. We had a disagreement about that. He didn’t really bother his backside with me and didn’t speak to me much. I was angry with him.
“I was sitting upstairs one day and he was talking to me, he started to try and joke. I just ignored him and carried on eating my soup. Then we had a conversation in his office. He asked what that was all about and that ignoring him wasn’t on. I told him he ignored me for six weeks. He said he called me. We agreed to disagree because he didn’t call me. We got on and it was fine after that.
“Then he pulled me in before Christmas and said he wanted to change the terms of my contract. I said if you want me leave, I’ll leave but if you want me to stay those are the terms. He said I’d been injured a lot. There wasn’t a lot I could do about that. In the end, we fell out. I didn’t want to leave and I felt I was wronged in that instance. I didn’t want to leave Celtic.”
Sutton goes on to stress that he and Strachan now have a good working relationship, with both of them regularly found on the pundit scene talking about the Hoops.
However, from listening to the interview, it’s clear his Celtic exit still rankles with him a fair bit.
At the time, the Bhoys were moving on from the O’Neill era and trying to cut costs while still maintaining a title-winning team, so you can see Strachan’s point of view. However, like other players at the time, Sutton’s exit ended up having more of a cloud over it than anyone would have liked given the impact made on the club.
In other news, Video: Celtic prospect scores wonder goal on international duty.
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