Chris Sutton has fired back at Craig Gordon’s claim that the BT Sport pundit has an agenda against the keeper.
Gordon was unhappy with a number of issues when he spoke to the media to preview tonight’s match at Dundee- which will be shown live on BT Sport.
While some pundits broadcast the first thought that comes into their mind Sutton likes to do his homework to back up his opinions and instinct with facts.
Rather than back down or shy away from the issue the former Celtic striker came out fighting and isn’t afraid to justify and explain his views.
“Craig Gordon isn’t happy with me highlighting the mistakes he’s made in the last couple of years,” he explains in the Daily Record. “He’s just made another one.
“Craig thinks I have some sort of agenda against him. He’s wrong. It’s nothing personal. It’s just the way it is.
“I don’t have a problem with him having a go at me. In fact, fair play to him. He’s entitled to come out and voice his opinion but don’t think it’s something personal. It’s far from it.
“I don’t know Craig personally but it’s his job to keep the ball out of the net and it’s my job to highlight it when he makes a mistake.
“It’s as simple as that. If he wasn’t making these errors I wouldn’t be pointing them out. I am not manufacturing anything here. It’s stating the obvious.
Sutton added: “I have a lot of admiration for Craig, especially the way he came back from his career-threatening injury to play for Celtic.
“He was superb in those first couple of seasons. There is no doubt he is a top-class keeper but if you are then you can’t afford your standards to drop.
“It’s not just me who said it. Brendan Rodgers left him out last year and he had to fight his way back in. But you can’t tell me that he’s been playing brilliantly, because he hasn’t.
“His distribution has improved but there are times he looks like Bambi on ice and is making too many errors. Those are facts.
“It might have escaped his notice but I had Craig in my BT Sport Team of the Week on Monday. I said at the time his save against Ross County was sensational. I said it was arguably the save of the season so far.
“Is it part of an agenda when I praise him? Of course not. But it’s a two-way street and you can only deal in the facts.
“And the facts are Craig has made numerous mistakes in the last couple of seasons. There is no getting away from it. The turning point for me was the Inter game a few years ago.
“Until that point he had barely put a foot wrong. But he chucked in a couple that night and ever since there has been a worrying increase in the frequency of errors he’s making. There’s not enough room on the page to list them all.”