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Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio.
Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Celtic, Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Sutton scored over 150 career goals in over 400 league appearances spanning 16 years in the Premier League and Scottish Premier Leagues. Initially a defender, while at Norwich, he successfully moved to playing as a striker. He won the Premier League in 1995 with Blackburn Rovers and was capped once by England. He was also known as one of the foremost exponents of the glancing header, scoring many goals with this technique, which made him particularly effective from set-pieces.
In September 2009, Sutton was appointed manager of Lincoln City, but he resigned for personal reasons twelve months later. In 2012, he came out of retirement briefly and featured for non-league Wroxham.
In Stringer's final season as manager, 1991–92, when Norwich reached the FA Cup semi-finals, Sutton gradually broke into the first team. He made 21 league appearances that season, scoring twice.
Sutton found success in his new position as Norwich spent most of the first season of the new FA Premier League, in 1992–93, as league leaders, before eventually slipping to third place under new manager Mike Walker. Sutton featured in 38 Premier League games that season, scoring eight goals, which made him the club's second-highest scorer behind Mark Robins.
In the autumn of 1993, Sutton was part of the side that eliminated Bayern Munich from the UEFA Cup, while he scored 25 Premier League goals in the 1993/94 season. He was now being strongly linked with a move to a bigger club, with Manchester United among those reported to be interested in signing him.
After manager Walker went to Everton, in January 1994, and succeeded by assistant John Deehan, Norwich slipped out of the top five and finished 12th.
Sutton was now being strongly linked with bigger clubs, including Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal and Manchester United.
A succession of injuries, combined with a loss of form, saw Sutton making only 13 Premier League appearances during the 1995–96 season and failing to score a single league goal. Shearer's regular strike partner that season became Mike Newell, but, at the end of the season, both Shearer and Newell departed from the club, leaving Sutton and Kevin Gallacher as Blackburn's only major strikers.
Sutton regained his form over the next two seasons, achieving joint highest goalscoring place in the Premier League in 1997–98, by scoring 18 times.
Sutton was involved in a controversial moment towards the end of the 1996–97 season in a league game against Arsenal at Highbury. Late in the game, with The Gunners leading by a single goal, the ball was kicked out of play by Arsenal to allow an injured teammate to receive treatment. Under the unwritten sportsmanship rule, Arsenal would expect the ball to be returned to them unhindered. Sutton chased the ball instead of allowing it to be thrown back to Arsenal and won a corner from his efforts, from which Blackburn scored. At the end of the season, Arsenal missed out on a lucrative place in the Champions League to Newcastle United on goal difference. Following the incident, Blackburn's interim manager Tony Parkes described Sutton as "a boy who was sometimes a bit dizzy ... a bit silly", stating "It was against the spirit of the game and he should not have done it".
Sutton refused to apologise for his action.
Although, in 1997/98, Sutton's 18 goals helped Blackburn finish sixth in the League and qualify for the UEFA Cup, he managed just 17 league games and three goals the following season, 1998–99, as they were relegated four years after being crowned champions.
Sutton's goals helped Celtic win three SPL titles, three and one Scottish League Cup, as well as reaching the UEFA Cup final. Many of Sutton's most "memorable goals" for Celtic were scored in European competition: Against Ajax FC away in 2001, Juventus at Celtic Park the same year, away against Blackburn Rovers, and against VfB Stuttgart during the team's UEFA Cup run to the final in Seville in 2003, and the volley from close range against FC Barcelona at Celtic Park in 2004.
Sutton holds the record for the quickest goal ever in an Old Firm clash, scored at Ibrox Stadium in 2002, finding the net after just 18 seconds.
Sutton's nature came to the fore again at the end of the 2002–03 season when he accused Dunfermline Athletic of "lying down", in order for Celtic to lose the title. He failed to apologise and was charged with "bringing the game into disrepute." He received for the non-apology statement a one-match ban to add to the four-match suspension he was serving for abusing match officials on the same day.
Sutton's best season at Celtic was arguably the 2003–04 season, when he scored 19 SPL goals. and was voted SPFA Player of the Year. As the 2003–04 season drew to a conclusion, he struck the injury-time winner against Rangers at Celtic Park, giving his side a clean sweep of victories against their rivals that season (four league wins and one Scottish Cup win).
In Sutton's five and a half years at Celtic, Sutton showed versatility on many occasions. Although primarily a striker, he was often deployed in central midfield to allow Welsh striker John Hartson to play up front alongside Larsson. On occasion, Sutton was fielded in his original position of centre-half, notably against Rangers in a league game on 4 October 2003, which Celtic won 1–0.
As Gordon Strachan took up the reins of managing Celtic in 2005–06, his appearances for Celtic became more sporadic. Sutton departed from Celtic on a free transfer in January 2006.
However, in a game against Manchester United in December 2006, he suffered blurred vision and, despite visiting several specialists, did not recover. O'Neill said, "Chris has got a genuine concern. No-one can give him any guarantees about what might be the consequences if he got cracked on the head again. Whatever eyesight Chris has now, he would obviously want to keep, so he must bear that in mind when deciding his whole future and career." On 5 July 2007, after an eye injury, Sutton retired from football.
Sutton's first game as manager came at Sincil Bank against Aldershot Town on 3 October 2009. Lincoln were victorious through a second half Sergio Torres goal to give Sutton a winning start in management. Sutton took Lincoln to the FA Cup third round for the first time since 1999, but lost 4–0 to Premier League outfit Bolton Wanderers. Football League survival was confirmed on 24 April 2010 when Sutton guided the Imps to a 1–0 victory over promotion-chasing Bury at Sincil Bank, with two games remaining. Sutton left his post as Lincoln manager on 29 September due to family reasons.
After retiring from football, Sutton remained an athlete, playing cricket for Norwich Cricket Club in the EAPL.
In February 2022, Sutton and Micah Richards spoke about mental health issues in their playing days.
| Lincoln City | 30 September 2009 | 29 September 2010 |
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