The younger brother of Chris and the son of former Norwich defender Mike, John followed his brother through the Hellesdon High School football sides and then the Norfolk Middle and High Schools. He joined Norwich City when he was 11 but his route deviated from that of his brother and he joined Tottenham at the age of 12, for whose Academy side he played. Already capped at England Under 15 and Under 16 level, John was considered to be potentially a better player than his big brother.

The 2000/01 season saw him score 25 goals in 26 matches for Spurs' Under17 side including 4 against Reading in one match (a feat that he achieved the previous season against Birmingham). John broke through to Colin Calderwood's Spurs reserve side during the 2001/02 season.

To further his footballing development, John was loaned out to Third Division strugglers Carlisle United on 4th October 2002 in a deal that was extended to December 2002. After returning to White Hart Lane, John and Tottenham agreed to end his academy scholarship and he was free to join Second Division Swindon Town shortly before Christmas 2002. He made just 1 appearance for the Robins during a month's contract.

John later trialled with Southend at the end of March 2003, playing in their 2-0 reserves' victory against Cheltenham and scoring one of the goals. In April 2003, he accompanied three other former Canaries (Robert George, Danny Self and Jamie Window) on a trial with Cambridge United. In all there were seven triallists in United's reserve team clash with Reading on 9th April 2003 which they lost 3-2 with Jamie Cureton scoring Reading's winner. John scored one of Cambridge's two goals.The other triallists were Shaun Humphries (Stoke), Liam Kearney (Notts Forest) and Chris Wild (Orient). John then played for Cambridge's reserves on 23rd April against Gillingham, scoring once in a 3-0 win. This time, he was accompanied by trialists Daniel Perry and David Lee.

Cambridge have since announced their intention to sign Sutton and Lee. It was expected that John would sign for United during the pre-season but on 8th July 2003, Cambridge announced that they would not be pursuing signing Sutton any further. A few days later and a brief trial with Leicester, Raith Rovers announced that they had signed Sutton. Wonder if his big brother had extolled the virtues of playing in Scotland ?

John's impressive goalscoring record for Raith saw him naturally linked with other sides. One rumour suggested that Celtic would team the two Sutton brothers together. The other suggested that Millwall were keen to bring John back to London. Another possible destination materialised in January 2004 when John's agent revealed that Spanish giants Valencia wanted to bring him in on trial during the international transfer window. John rejected the Valencia trial offer but immediatley afterwards, Dundee made an offer to take him on loan. This was rejected by Raith who stated that if John was to move, they would seek a transfer fee especially as two Premiership sides (Manchester City and Southampton) had shown an interest. In the end, Millwall won the race for his signature, reportedly paying £110,000 for him on January 30th 2004.

On 28th June 2004, John returned to Scotland, joining Dundee on a season-long loan, leading to increased speculation that the Dark Blues' striker Nacho Novo would be moving to Rangers or Celtic. Although John returned to Millwall, he returned to Scotland on 31st August 2005 signing a two year contract with St Mirren. He was a target for Falkirk during the January 2007 transfer window.

John returned to England at the end of June 2007, signing for Wycombe Wanderers.

In August 2008 Motherwell manager Mark McGhee made an offer for Sutton, who had been released by Wycombe Wanderers and is available on a free transfer. McGhee hopes that the lure of Uefa Cup football will tempt the 24-year-old, who is also attracting interest from Falkirk, to move to Fir Park. John completed his switch to Motherwell on 20th August 2008

Sutton switched to Hearts on 25th May 2011 and scored his first goals in the 3-0 win over Aberdeen on 13th August 2011

At the beginning of February 2012, Hearts announced that Sutton was being loaned to Australian A-League side Central Coast Mariners. He won the A-League Premiership with the Mariners but has since returned to Hearts.

When Hearts went into administration at the end of the 2012/13 season, John refused to take a wage cut and was made redundant. Sutton has insisted he only moved on as he had been told he had no future at Tynecastle before the club entered administration. "I think my mindset changed just after the season. I found it difficult when I got told I wasn't part of their plans anymore. At the end of the season I was told that I was very much part of their plans. We all knew there was a possibility of administration, but at that point my only consideration was to stay at Hearts where I still had another year on my deal. A week after that my representative received a call saying that I wasn't wanted at the club anymore." He then joined Motherwell on 28th June 2013 signing a two year contract.

On 15th June 2015, John signed for St Johnstone on a two year deal. He had scored twelve goals for Motherwell in 2014/15

He moved to St Mirren in the summer of 2016. He remained there until May 2018 when it was announced that he would be leaving the club.

In the summer of 2019, he joined Greenock Morton as coach. He retired from playing in August 2020.

John is also a good cricketer and has played for Norfolk and The Midlands.