A lot of bad stuff happened in 2016 – but it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
It was also the year Chris Sutton cemented his place as the country’s leading wind-up merchant-cum-football pundit.
The former Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea striker has been noisily making a name for himself as the one TV and radio pundit who is not afraid to disagree with his fellow ex-professionals.
For years most of the analysis of the national game consisted of former player agreeing with each other in a clubby, Soccer Saturday atmosphere of old boy-ism.
But not Chris. Chris has made it his business to disagree, interrupt, annoy and irritate his colleagues whenever possible.
Here he is getting into a row with Stephen Craigan over the appointment of Ian Cathro as Hearts’ head coach.
https://twitter.com/FitbaHacks/status/807298954505416705
And here he is arguing with former Rangers man Kris Boyd about the gap between Celtic and the Ibrox side.
"The gap isn't that big!" Kris Boyd and @chris_sutton73 clash over Old Firm rivals, @celticfc and @RangersFC. #SPFL https://t.co/0lxQf51z2O
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 17, 2016
And today the ex-Celtic striker was at it again, when he cheekily suggested that Rangers were so far behind Celtic that the “more relevant” derby match for them was actually with Partick Thistle.
He said: “Their battle is for second place. Mark Warburton talked about budgets this week and Celtic having a bigger budget than Rangers. It’s going to be the battle with Aberdeen really which they’ll have on this season.
“There is such a big gap. Rangers now are closer to Patrick Thistle. That may be the more relevant Glasgow derby now than the Celtic one.”
Robbie Savage just couldn’t take it and had to interject, saying: “But it’s not is it? It’s not. It’s Rangers / Celtic.
“Let’s get it right, Rangers and Celtic is still the biggest derby.”
"Partick may be @RangersFC's more relevant derby now!"@chris_sutton73 jokes after @celticfc's #OldFirm win. https://t.co/HGUiC0526i
— BT Sport Score (@btsportscore) December 31, 2016
Now THAT is punditry. Are you watching, Michael Owen?
