CHRIS Sutton is a big man in a physical sense but the former Celtic player behaved like a small child when he exited Parkhead during the week. His valedictory statement was the literary equivalent of the toys being thrown out of the pram, Sutton saying he had no option but to leave Celtic and head south, that he was, in reality, being forced out the door by Gordon Strachan. He thanked Martin O'Neill as if O'Neill was still ruling the roost in the east end of Glasgow.
Sutton, clearly, is caught in a time warp. What he has singularly failed to realise these last six months is that Strachan does not give tuppence for the past in the sense that he sees no reason to select the likes of Alan Thompson and Didier Agathe
just because they have been great servants for so many years. O'Neill built his team around a tight little coterie and love-bombed them regularly. His little motivational tricks worked wonders and they were an important part of Sutton's success. David Gold, his new chairman at Birmingham, said as much on Friday.
That might have been the Irishman's way but it's not necessarily Strachan's. A few weeks ago, he was asked a question about the break-up of O'Neill's fêted team from Seville and he dropped his head in exasperation and muttered "Jesus Christ" under his breath before giving his answer. You can't live off former glories forever was the gist of what he said. Form, or lack of it, is the only factor in the equation. He didn't mention Sutton but he may have had him in mind.
Sutton has been a fabulous player for Celtic, his 86 goals in 199 appearances only telling part of the story of his success. You suspect that, at his best, he can be heavily influential at his new club. In full flow, he could easily have regained his status as the SPL's most dominant force but the truth is that it's been a while now since we've seen his most convincing form.
It was reported in the last few days that the striker was upset that Strachan did not go to see him when he fractured his cheekbone in the 5-0 defeat to Artmedia at the start of the season. The relationship, it seems, went downhill from there. Sutton felt unloved and, when it came to contract renegotiation time, sparks would fly.
In his ten games for Celtic this season, Sutton has not contributed greatly. Neither his starting place nor his basic salary of £1.7m a year (or just over £32,000 a week) could be justified on the evidence of his performances. Strachan could legitimately look at how Sutton played in the home defeat to Dunfermline and wonder what on earth he was doing paying so much for so little, especially in such straitened times. Sutton, by many accounts, looked and acted bored in that game and then reacted badly when forced to sit on the bench for the game against Caley Thistle in mid-December.
So when his agent sat down with Celtic and started talking money, the end was nigh. Celtic wanted Sutton to take a big pay cut, as Neil Lennon had done and as Roy Keane did when he moved from Manchester. Sutton's man agreed but then felt that the club reneged on the original offer. The truth is out there somewhere. Not that it matters now. The fact is that the relationship between Sutton and Strachan was dead in the water and probably not even a life-raft made of notes would have kept it afloat.
So Sutton's European football days are almost certainly over, brought to an end on a painful night in Bratislava. Hardly the farewell he deserved. At least he goes to Birmingham with his £30,000 a week salary intact. No doubt it will be a comfort to him as he knuckles down for a grim battle against relegation. Birmingham lie second bottom of the Premiership, one point behind Portsmouth and three behind West Brom.
Celtic, meanwhile, have freed up a vast amount of money for its various needy causes, among them Stilian Petrov and, if they have any sense, Stephen McManus. In losing Sutton, the club now has plenty of cash to secure the futures of players who are delivering in the here and now rather than trading on their reputation of yesterday.
Tragic demise of forgotten Scot who took FA Cup out of England for the only timeARSENAL hosted Cardiff in the FA Cup yesterday, and all during the week in parts of the principality that are forever Bluebird they have been reminiscing about a previous meeting between those two teams. With good reason, too. In April of 1927, Cardiff beat Arsenal in what was then known as the English FA Cup final at Wembley, the 'English' being dropped in the wake of Wales's first and only victory in the competition.
So they were getting nostalgic for the boys of 1927 last week, and once again reliving the heroics of a particular Scotsman, Hughie Ferguson.
The little striker has been standing in the annals of Cardiff's history through the decades. In that same season of 1926-27, Ferguson scored 32 goals, a mark that stood for more than 70 years until Robert Earnshaw surpassed it in 2003. At Wembley, Ferguson scored the only goal of the game, a shot that was fumbled into the back of the net by Dan Lewis, the Arsenal goalkeeper.
Lewis, a Welshman, was said to be haunted by the error for the rest of his days. Arsenal supporters at the time didn't ease his pain much either. They accused him of deliberately allowing the shot to slip from his grasp in order to give his countrymen their greatest day. Ferguson, however, was a hero forever more.
When he scored, Lloyd George, sitting in the stand alongside Winston Churchill, whipped off his hat and waved it in the air. Later, the Scot was congratulated personally by King George V.
A quarter of a million people cheered the team through the streets of Cardiff the following day. On a high, then, Ferguson's life would have a deeply tragic end. In 1929 he returned home to Scotland to play for Dundee, but lack of form brought on by persistent injury made for an unhappy time there. The supporters expected huge things from him, and barracked him relentlessly when he could not deliver. He was dropped from the team and sank into a depression.
On January 9, 1930 - 76 years ago tomorrow - Hughie Ferguson committed suicide, gassing himself to death after a training session at Dens Park. None of the pieces that ran in the Welsh papers last week made mention of his tragic demise. Aged 32, he left a wife and two children.
