Chris Sutton on not being fancied by Dermot Desmond

Chris Sutton has opened up on not being fancied by Dermot Desmond, before his eventual move to Paradise back in 2000…

The former Blackburn Rovers striker had endured a torrid time at Chelsea, following a big-money move to Stamford Bridge and has revealed Celtic’s principal shareholder even had terrible judgement back then too.

Sutton was a Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers under Celtic and Liverpool icon Kenny Dalglish, who won the England’s top division in 1995, after being heavily bankrolled by Jack Walker. The big centre-forward joined up with the Lancashire outift from Norwich City and forged a formidable partnership with Alan Shearer at that time.

That propelled Rovers to the league title and then prompted Chelsea to make a move for Sutton, who was by that point hot property.

However, his move to the London side didn’t go as planned and he has admitted it wasn’t his most inspiring spell as a player back in the late nineties, following a dazzling rise to fame in the middle of the same decade under Dalglish’s stewardship at Ewood Park.

Languising in that situation, Martin O’Neill called the Englishman after taking over at Celtic Park, with Mark Viduka on his road out of the club and the Irishman looking for a capable replacement. Although, as Sutton recalls, Dermot Desmond was not sold on the prospect of Chris rocking up at Parkhead and told Martin as much at that point in time.

Opening up on the Warm-Up podcast about his move to Celtic and Desmond’s resistance to it, the 53-year-old said: “I love Scottish football because there is no other place I have played where the passion is what it is.

“I was lucky Martin gave me the chance. Apparently Dermot Desmond didn’t want to sign me and was questioning Martin about that decision but Martin got it through.

“The biggest thing was realising in a short space of time that winning was really important and realising how much Celtic and Rangers hate each other. And that was the biggest thing. And it was the biggest take because where I live in Norfolk, Norwich and Ipswich don’t like each other but you lot are on a different level,”Sutty continued.

Sutton admitted that his confidence was knocked after that failed Chelsea spell, but that he felt the feeling was right at Celtic Park, despite other options on the table at the time too.

“If you put yourself in my position, I had had a poor season, I was a laughing stock,” he said. “You go for that amount of money and I scored three goals that season, and I was old enough that I understood. My confidence was knocked and I was thinking ‘should I sit it out?

“There was always that possibility but I always thought I was better moving on and moving out of London,” Sutton reflected.

“I could have gone to Tottenham and I spoke to Middlesbrough. I’m not saying I had a good feeling but I did have a feeling that things might work out for me. I knew where I was in terms of a pecking order, I was well aware of what my strengths and weaknesses were,” an honest Sutton stated.

Watch big Sutton discuss Dermot Desmond’s poor decision-making below…

Paul Gillespie

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