Kris Boyd has admitted that Celtic legends Chris Sutton and John Hartson had an influence on his career when he was playing at Kilmarnock.
A well-known Rangers supporter, Boyd did eventually end up playing for the Ibrox club.
And now, as Boyd enjoys punditry work alongside Sutton, the former Rangers player has now admitted that he was told to learn from his co-pundit and ex-Celtic striker John Hartson.
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Boyd reveals why Jim Jefferies sent him to watch Celtic
Speaking frankly about his whole career, Boyd reflected on his time at Kilmarnock and admitted that he learned from watching Celtic legends Sutton and Hartson’s games.
Boyd told The Warm Up, “I can remember at the time because I’d back myself to outscore anybody, but getting people questioning other aspects of your game.
“Every single day in training there was balls fired up. You’ve got to hold it up every single day you’re taking away what you’re going to have to work on.
“And I remember Jim [Jeffries] said, ‘I know you support Rangers and I know you’re a big Rangers fan and everything, but see for you, you know what you need to do? Go and watch they two at Celtic’.
“I was like ‘Who?’ and he said ‘Sutton and Hartson. Go and watch those two. You need to watch their game, the way they take the ball in the way they take it.’
“So I ended up I did I ended up taking it in and then just falling over and grabbing the ball like big Sutton.”
Why Celtic’s iconic strikers became Scottish football’s benchmark
Sutton and Hartson [and not forgetting Henrik Larsson] made a huge contribution to the Celtic team that overthrew Rangers in the early 2000s.
They also took Celtic to their first European final since the 1967 European Cup final win in Lisbon as they bullied the likes of Liverpool, Stuttgart and Blackburn on the way to the UEFA Cup final in 2003.
Managers rarely tell players to study their biggest rivals. The fact Jefferies sent a Rangers-supporting Boyd to watch Sutton and Hartson says everything about how highly Celtic’s strike partnership was regarded across Scottish football.
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