{"id":304854,"date":"2025-07-30T20:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304854\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T20:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:54:10","slug":"michael-owen-namechecks-celtic-hero-who-was-undervalued-by-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304854\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Owen namechecks Celtic hero who was undervalued by England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celtic have had many top players capped by their country over the years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Callum McGregor who won 63 caps for Scotland<\/a> to as far back as Kenny Dalglish who was given the honour 102 times over his Celtic and Liverpool career, the Bhoys have had many players represent their country at the highest level.<\/p>\n

As far as England internationals go, the Bhoys have had three players who were capped by the English FA whilst at Celtic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Liverpool legend Michael Owen believes there was one who was seriously underrated by the national association during his entire football and Celtic career.<\/p>\n

\"Celtic22 Mar 1999: A portrait of Chris Sutton of England at Bisham Abbey, England. Mandatory Credit: Graham Chadwick \/AllsportMichael Owen namechecks Celtic hero Chris Sutton as undervalued by England<\/p>\n

Alan Thompson and Fraser Forster are the only two players who were capped by England whilst playing for Celtic.<\/p>\n

Chris Sutton<\/a> and Dion Dublin were another two players who did play for Celtic but earned those caps at another club.<\/p>\n

And as Michael Owen lamented the talent in the England forward line at this moment in time, the former Liverpool striker namechecked Sutton as a player who should have had more games for his country due to his goalscoring record.<\/p>\n

Owen told talkSPORT, \u201cYeah, in my head, I\u2019m saying it\u2019ll be difficult for us to win [the World Cup] in those conditions in America. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be 40 something degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean Saunders<\/strong>: \u201cHarry Kane\u2019s a year older. That, for me, looking at the England squad, I\u2019m thinking, if he don\u2019t play, who\u2019s playing? <\/p>\n

\u201cOllie Watkins. Who else have you got? Ivan Toney? You\u2019re going down the list of who is going to change the game at the highest level. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you were playing, remember the strikers?\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen<\/strong>: \u201cAndy Cole, Robbie Fowler, Alan Shearer, Sheringham, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Stan Collymore, Chris Sutton, Dion Dublin, Michael Owen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just named about 10, but there\u2019s players like Robbie Fowler and Andy Cole scoring 30 goals in the Premier League and not getting the international game with us. Incredible. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow you just score five goals and if you\u2019re English it\u2019s now, like, give them a chance in the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Celtic hero Sutton didn\u2019t get more England caps<\/p>\n

It was Sutton\u2019s goalscoring record at Blackburn Rovers that earned the Celtic icon his first England cap.<\/p>\n

On the 15th of November 1997, the big striker was brought on in the 79th minute in an England friendly against Cameroon as he looked to make the France \u201998 World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

However, a fall-out with the then England manager Glen Hoddle put paid to that ambition. Sutton was named in the England B squad but subsequently pulled out as he saw the call-up as a \u2018demotion\u2019.<\/p>\n

Hoddle told The Independent<\/a> at the time, \u201cI spoke to Chris yesterday. I tried to persuade him not to pull out out of the squad, as did his club manager. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the end, it\u2019s his decision. If someone doesn\u2019t want to play for their country at any level I won\u2019t force them. That\u2019s his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after just 11 minutes in the senior squad, Sutton\u2019s England career ended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtic have had many top players capped by their country over the years. From Callum McGregor who won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,2987,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-304854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chris-sutton","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114944177926434095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}