Dmac

Eye injury forces Sutton to quit


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Striker Chris Sutton has decided to retire from football because of a problem with blurred vision.

The 34-year-old was at Aston Villa last season but missed the second half of the campaign after experiencing eye trouble in a match in December.

"I spoke to Chris on Wednesday and, given the eye problem, he has decided to retire," said agent Tony McGill.

Sutton, who started his career with Norwich in 1991, made one appearance for England - against Cameroon in 1997.

The Nottingham-born player started out as a defender with the Canaries, making his debut against QPR in 1990.

But he was bought as a forward by Blackburn for £5m in 1994 - a British record transfer fee - and was part of the Rovers team that won the Premiership in 1995.

Sutton also played for Chelsea, Celtic and Birmingham before signing for Villa in October 2006.

"If Chris had declared that his eye was OK he would probably have got another year at Villa," added McGill.

"But he decided that he could not do himself justice with the eye injury and, more importantly, he has taken into account the effects it might have on his future life.

"It is disappointing but it is not as though he is starting his career."

Chelsea paid £10m for Sutton in July 1999 but he scored only one Premier League goal for the London club before moving north to Celtic 12 months later.

Sutton won three Scottish Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup at Celtic and played in the 2003 Uefa Cup final.

He struck up a formidable strike partnership with Henrik Larsson and received the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association players' player of the year award in 2004.

Sutton joined Birmingham in January 2006 but the move did not work out as Blues were relegated, so he sealed a move to Villa.

Credit - BBC Sport

He has had an amazing career, it is a shame that it has to end like this but lets face it, it was nearing a close anyway at 34 years old. He has done well to be one of the players over 30 to remain in the top flight.

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Tyler Durden

He had a good career and, as Dmac says, it was pretty much over anyway.

Be interesting to see if, what happened to Sutton internationally also happens to Bentley in the forthcoming years as well. For those that don't know, Sutton turned down an appearance for England 'B and never again represented his country at any level.

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A throne is just a bench wrapped in velvet

Dmac

Yeah well everyone needs to start somewhere if they want to play for there country, whether it be u-21 or the B squad, it doesn't matter. Look at it like if you impress for the lower squad you are more likely to earn a cap for the full squad.

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Adam Wolf

He did infact have a good career, moving from Norwich City to Blackburn Rovers for a then British transfer record of £5m, he had a good time teaming with Alan Shearer but like anyone who teamed with Alan has always been in his shadow. Chris Sutton, had a succesion of only okay clubs, Celtic, Birmingham City and then Aston Villa, where he never reached the same form he had at Blackburn. Unfortunate to see him retire.

Dmac

Well you forget that at Celtic he was brilliant too, forming a successful partnership with Henrik Larsson but again unfortunately for him, he was in the shadow, Larsson was the star, not him, he was only the sidekick so to speak.

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