10 Premier League greats you've probably forgotten

#5 Chris Sutton

In today’s Premier League – when Kyle Walker can be bought for £50m and Romelu Lukaku for £75m – it seems bizarre to remember a time when the British transfer record was in fact £5m. But that was indeed the case in the summer of 1994 when Blackburn Rovers – at the time chasing the title by splashing the cash in a similar way that both Manchester sides and Chelsea do today – spent that sum on Norwich striker Chris Sutton after he hit 25 goals in 1993/94.

The gamble on Sutton paid off – he formed a formidable striking partnership with Alan Shearer, and scored 15 league goals alongside Shearer’s 34 as Blackburn won the Premier League title for the first and only time. 1995/96 saw an unfortunate drop in form – injuries curtailed his season and he only scored one league goal – but over the next two seasons he regained his mojo and ended up the joint top scorer in 1997/98, hitting 18 league goals as Blackburn climbed back up to sixth.

Sutton spent one more season at Blackburn where he was supposed to lead the line again, but instead, was kept out of action by a series of injuries and the side ended up being relegated. A pre-Abramovich move to Chelsea followed but Sutton never really fit in at Stamford Bridge, scoring just one league goal in his season there, before moving to Scotland with Celtic, where he regained his old form again.

Unfortunately, though, it seems his time in Scotland – as well as the fact that he played in an era full of brilliant strikers – means he’s become largely forgotten.