Rangers: Todd Cantwell on the end of ‘really harsh’ Chris Sutton sarcasm after Celtic incident
Chris Sutton is still poking fan at Todd Cantwell after pretending to show solidarity with the Rangers midfielder as a fellow former Norwich player.
The January signing from Carrow Road drew criticism in the wake of the 1-0 defeat to Celtic last weekend (30 April) when he took the physio’s bag of water bottles away from Reo Hatate, with the BT Sport pundit making a joke out of it on Twitter after the final whistle.
He was at it again on Friday night (5 May), sarcastically standing up for the Ibrox player by suggesting those from the Norwich area are instinctively protective over water.
Sutton said on Scottish Football Extra for BT Sport, via the Scottish Sun: “I thought the criticism of him for not letting Reo Hatate have a drink was really harsh – where we live we have the lowest rainfall in the country so we have always been very protective in Norfolk of our water.
“So I’m going to stick up for Todd. Lay off him for that.”
On he goes
It was probably slightly unnecessary for Cantwell to keep the water from Hatate, especially since his teammates then let the Japanese midfielder take it anyway.
But in a derby the size of the Old Firm clash it can’t be too difficult to get caught up in the rivalry, and he didn’t put in a leg-breaking challenge so the outrage from some is an overreaction.
As ever this season Rangers have made it easy for Sutton to have his fun because they have now gone five games against the Hoops without a win.
It is for that reason that Michael Beale is set for a massive overhaul of the squad this summer as he is now destined to finish empty-handed, while Ange Postecoglou is presumed to land a domestic treble.
Cantwell’s arrival in January has been encouraging alongside Nico Raskin but ultimately hasn’t changed the direction of travel in the key games.
So it is going to require a significant amount of additional upgrades if the Light Blues are going to start coming out on top against Celtic and avoid handing their rivals the initiative on the pitch and their supporters the bragging rights off it.
In other Rangers news, two SPFL goal scorers have been linked to summer Ibrox transfers with Beale needing to sign as many as three strikers.