Chris Sutton on Celtic, Henrik Larsson & football memorabilia
Celtic and Blackburn Rovers legend Chris Sutton has stated that the Barcelona shirt he swapped with Henrik Larsson is his favourite in his collection.
Speaking ahead of the premiere of BT Sport's new documentary 'Glory Hunters' which explores the sports memorabilia market, Sutton discussed the memories old football jerseys bring back from his time at Norwich City, Blackburn and Celtic.
"Over the years I've given a lot of my shirts away but I have kept some for my sons, who wanted to have some of the shirts which I wore. I have a couple of Blackburn Rovers shirts - one which is framed in my son's room - from the season we won the league, with a photo from the celebrations at Ewood Park. I think it was the day after we'd won the title, so we were all a bit worse for wear I think," said Sutton, speaking to 90min.
"I really memorabilia, and I never thought about it too much when I played, but now that I've gotten a little bit older I'm really glad I kept those shirts from my days at Blackburn, Norwich and Celtic.
"I was always a bit of a sulker when I lost a game so I didn't necessarily think it was the right thing to do to swap shirts if you'd lost a game. You see players, and I think there have been players of the last few years, who have asked for shirts at half time. It was a bit of a no-no as far as I was concerned.
"I had more shirts than I'd imagined over the years. Once I'd stopped I went up to the loft and got the couple of bags out and I've got some really nice stuff which trigger some really great memories."
Sutton took time to discuss his favourite jerseys, stating that the one he got off Larsson in 2005 was the standout. The two forwards formed a brilliant partnership at Celtic in the early 2000s, guiding the Bhoys to a number of title wins and even a UEFA Cup final in 2004. Larsson returned to Celtic for the first time as a Barcelona player in late 2004 and scored a goal as Barça ran out 3-0 winners at Parkhead.
'[All of the shirts in my collection] are all part of a journey, and part of a story. The Norwich City shirt, which I can't actually remember keeping, but all of a sudden that was one of the shirts which came out of the bag and that night against Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium that's the biggest night in the club's history. I don't think another English club did that. That, as a standalone to have is really important to me.
"Blackburn Rovers, I wouldn't say it was the demise of the club, but what it was under Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish and playing in that team alongside Alan Shearer and winning the Premier League, that's a huge, huge deal looking back at it and comparing to where the club is now when they can't fill the stadium, so that means so much to me.
"I've got a couple of Celtic shirts too. I've got the one from Seville [UEFA Cup final] and one from the treble-winning season. And they mean the world to me, but they all have equal value to me because they're all part of my football journey so I don't have any favourites in that respect.
"If I had a favourite shirt it would probably have to be the one I swapped with Larsson when he came back. He was a better player than me so to have his shirt means a lot to me because of my relationship with him. I had so much admiration for him and, you know, that was the only game we lost at home in the Champions League under Martin O'Neill and it was sod's law that he came back and scored for Barcelona."
Sutton also discussed the brilliant job both Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Ange Postecoglou have done in the last year in Glasgow - with Rangers and Celtic respectively - stating:
"I think it will be close, I think Giovanni van Bronckhorst did a good job last season getting them to a Europa League final.
"I thought the job Ange Postecoglou did, coming in late, was great. All the talk was about Eddie Howe but Ange came in late, which put him behind on transfers, but I don't think any player he brought in didn't do well. He used the J League, a league which he knew very well from managing over there, really exceptionally well and the players he signed were big players for Celtic. He recruited well.
"And it's ok coming in, as all managers do, and talk about how they're going to play a certain brand of football which Celtic fans demand, but to actually go out and win the league following a season in which Rangers had won it by 25 points and Celtic's squad was in a bit of disarray. Nobody really gave him a chance of doing that because of the gulf the previous season. I thought that was remarkable.
"I always feel sorry for managers because when you win a league like that you should really to sort of wallow in the success for a few months really, but as is the norm - and I've experienced this myself - you have a bit of a break, you have your pre-season, and then you're back into the bedlam where you draw a game, you lose a game, and you're the worst thing ever again.
"That's football in Glasgow."
Watch Glory Hunters on Thursday 4 August at 8pm on BT Sport 2 or catch up on btsport.com or the BT Sport app.