{"id":491623,"date":"2026-03-23T23:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491623\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T23:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:24:14","slug":"chris-sutton-brands-celtic-star-downright-lazy-as-legendary-striker-goes-apoplectic-over-amateur-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491623\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Sutton brands Celtic star ‘downright lazy’ as legendary striker goes apoplectic over ‘amateur hour’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Hoops hero sat down for the latest edition of the Record Sport Celtic podcast and the ex striker pulled no punches following Sunday’s defeat to Dundee United<\/p>\n

16:51, 23 Mar 2026Updated 19:50, 23 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

Chris Sutton says Martin O\u2019Neill knows Celtic<\/a> can be c**p and is adamant the boss “isn’t having” the club\u2019s January attacking signings.<\/p>\n

In a seismic assessment, the former Parkhead hitman also accused Kelechi Iheanacho<\/a> of being lazy and says his old club have absolutely no chance in the title race.<\/p>\n

Sutton<\/a> has been left bewildered at the situation which O\u2019Neill<\/a> has left in with a toiling squad and says the boss is taking a sofly-softly approach just to maintain harmony.<\/p>\n

Celtic suffered a miserable 2-0 weekend loss to Dundee United and the Record Sport columnist said: \u201cHe [O\u2019Neill] is doing his best to get by, but he realised it was coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard him talk before the game and, because of the recent performances, he was never getting carried away about we\u2019ve got momentum now and this real belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the complete opposite of that and why is it like that? Because he knows the team is c**p at times and that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just look at the way that Martin has handled things. I think he\u2019s certainly different from his spell when I was there. The [Kasper] Schmeichel thing, he was quite softly, softly with that. I can\u2019t imagine him being softly, softly with that 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with the players coming in in January because I think he realises how delicate the situation is at the club.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Chris Sutton<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he realises that he has a fragile dressing room, so his game is trying to keep everybody on side, trying to keep that harmony, trying to talk the signings up in January when, I\u2019m telling you, he\u2019s not having those signings. I\u2019m telling you.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s the path he\u2019s gone down and I do understand that because, really, when you look at things, what\u2019s his alternative?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe centre forward situation is an absolute shambles. How can the club be in a position where they are, this is part-time stuff. It really is. It\u2019s absolutely amateur hour and I think you can see the frustration in Martin\u2019s face. I saw online he was getting criticism about the starting line-up at the weekend. I would love these people who are criticising to try and pick a Celtic team at this moment in time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCeltic are desperate, they\u2019re playing like a desperate team and with every selection, every weekend, I bet Martin is just scratching his head, like we all would be. Do I think Celtic will win the league? No. Absolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutton\u2019s pointed particularly to the forwards situation, with previous window recruits such as Junior Adamu and Joel Mvuka having little impact.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThat position has been a problem area all season. This is where I do feel for Martin in the fact that he\u2019s watching these players train every day and it\u2019s literally like a lucky dip who is going to play centre-forward week in and week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact he has made changes in recent times after 45 minutes just shows you what a mess, what a muddle Celtic are in and that\u2019s not ideal. It was a shock to me Iheanacho starting [against United]. I\u2019ve seen a lot of stuff online, people saying, well, he\u2019s our best striker, but I still think he\u2019s miles off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does some good things in terms of his link-up is okay, but I think there were times in the first half where he was just downright lazy and didn\u2019t work hard enough when balls were being played forward to actually get in a position where he could even be challenging for a ball and a knockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe fatigue had something to do with that, but it\u2019s been the story of Celtic season in the final third.<\/p>\n

\u201cIheanacho\u2019s game, and he\u2019s good at it, holding the ball, but then you still need players who are going to run in behind, get up in touch.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Tomas] Cvancara, I don\u2019t quite know what he is yet. He seems to be a little bit of everything. Adamu, I watched his finishing before the game and you\u2019re thinking, really? Do you want a big chance to fall to him? Johnny Kenny this season hasn\u2019t worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what it all goes back to. And, as I said, it\u2019s a guessing game for Martin. He must be tearing his hair out at the fact that he has to work with what he has to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Kelechi Iheanacho at Tannadice<\/p>\n

Celtic are five points behind leaders Hearts in the table and also trail Rangers by a couple with seven games to go.<\/p>\n

Sutton told the Record Celtic Podcast: \u201cI\u2019d much rather be Hearts than anybody else. They\u2019ve got [Lawrence] Shankland back, they\u2019ll get others back. They\u2019re narrowly winning games, but who would you rather be at this stage of the season?<\/p>\n

\u201cDanny Rohl is talking Rangers up a lot. They\u2019ll fancy their chances, but over the years, they have been serial losers. You wonder whether that mentality will kick in again.<\/p>\n

\u201cCeltic have to win seven games. That\u2019s what we probably all think, maybe six and a draw, but are Celtic really capable of doing that? And we all know the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never quite knew what to make of the split, but this season, I do think it\u2019s going to be epic. Everybody\u2019s capable of beating each other and that\u2019s what Celtic can cling to, really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Hoops hero sat down for the latest edition of the Record Sport Celtic podcast and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2817,18666,13716,59,9531,151095,151473,55591,30905,2714,8058,101,145100,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-491623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-celtic-fc","tag-chris-sutton","tag-dundee-united-fc","tag-gb","tag-hearts-fc","tag-joel-mvuka","tag-junior-adamu","tag-kelechi-iheanacho","tag-martin-oneill","tag-rangers-fc","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-tomas-cvancara","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}