We can all act like twits from time to time .. don’t make whole country pay the price
Griffiths and McLeish must put social media storm behind them and sort things out for Scotland’s sake
THE bible has a saying for moments such as these. Let he who is without sin post the first tweet. Or something like that.
Social media has a nasty habit of making fools of the best of us from time to time so, before football starts burning its own timeline over the curious case of Leigh Griffiths and the ‘like’ that should never have been, let’s all take a moment to calm down as well as a big deep breath.
First it must be acknowledged by all sides that, purely in terms of perception, this latest online faux pas is a horror story for both the player himself and for his already-strained relationship with a manager whose name has been taken in vain. And gone viral.
The truth of the matter is Griffiths may have 1000 good explanations for the screen grab which has been doing the rounds since it was first shown by BBC Scotland’s flagship news programme on Monday night.
It could have been faked. His finger may have slipped by accident. His account may have been hacked. Or his phone may have gone off in his pocket.
No really. These mishaps shouldn’t happen to a high-profile professional football player but, from time to time, even they are prone to the odd digital debacle.
Just ask Joleon Lescott who famously suffered the misfortune of cutting and pasting a photo of his new supercar and posting it online to the disgust of an army of Aston Villa fans while he was still driving it home from a 6-0 drubbing by Liverpool as his club hurtled towards relegation.
And all this, without removing his mobile device from the hip of his Dolce and Gabbana jeans.
Accidents do happen. Especially to the accident prone.
Which is why so many – maybe even Alex McLeish himself – will feel as if Griffiths has some explaining to do over this latest gaffe which was not just vile and insulting to the man in charge of Scotland but also derogatory to his team-mate Steven Naismith.
Only Griffiths will know for sure if he intentionally pressed that ‘like’ button. He may have no memory of doing so at all and those closest to the striker are adamant that this is indeed the fact of the matter.
But, in terms of perception, he might as well have plunged the palm of his hand down on the nuclear option given the damage this could do to his Scotland career.
And the way this simmering situation between manager and player has been mishandled on both sides since Griffiths was left on the bench for last month’s win over Albania.
Actually McLeish warned in advance of that match that Griffiths would have to get the finger out and nail down a starting place at Celtic.
He then hauled the striker off at half-time in the friendly against Belgium before handing his shirt to Naismith a couple of nights later.
This was a huge decision for a manager who knows he is already battling to win over the Scottish public. So when it came good and Naismith turned in a match-winning performance it was perhaps inevitable that McLeish would back his own judgment in public.
His mistake was in going so far in the moment that Griffiths felt picked upon and alienated.
That he then snubbed McLeish’s olive branch a few days later by blanking a phonecall – after telling the world that he had been kicked in the teeth – was as petulant as it was pathetic. And now look where it’s got the pair of them.
The demands have already begun for Griffiths to be banished for eternity from the international squad.
Predictably, most of them have come from supporters across the other side of the River Clyde who have been clattering breathlessly at their own keyboards since this latest Griffiths controversy hit the net.
This is the modern-day way of it, of course. Where club rivalries are concerned – and particularly these two clubs – offence and outrage can come barrelling into anyone’s timeline at the drop of a post.
Griffiths though appears to relish the role of the perennial wind-up merchant but often his behaviour has strayed beyond that, into the realms of plain idiocy and sometimes the downright crass.
Which is why the least the SFA ought to be doing this morning is to be demanding his version of these latest events. Even then only Griffiths will know for sure if he’s telling the truth or not.
But that’s not really the point. As long as the blazers are satisfied that he is both contrite and showing an appropriate level of embarrassment over this latest grubby episode then they can wash their hands of it and
His mistake was in going so far in the moment that Griffiths felt picked upon and alienated
allow two grown men to resolve the matter in the old-fashioned way. Man to man.
If McLeish has a problem with Griffiths then he ought to voice it to him in person. Likewise, if the Celtic man has issues to vent with the manager then he should feel free to do so behind closed doors.
The bottom line here is even if neither of these men has no time for the other, Scotland’s need is what matters most of all. And right now we need them both in the same camp, aiming for the same goal of a place at Euro 2020.
If there are egos to be massaged or even set to one side completely then they must make sure a compromise is brokered and agreed upon, for the national good. We’ve waited too long for this opportunity to qualify for a tournament by doing little more than running through an open door, only for a manager and a potential talisman to bring us crashing down by getting our collective knickers in such a twist. Over a tweet.
McLeish must be the bigger man and make the first move by being prepared to write this off for the nonsense that it is. Extend a hand to Griffiths and demand the striker is committed to the cause and prepared to fight for his place in the team.
If Griffiths is unwilling to make such an undertaking McLeish will have every reason to jettison him from the squad. But if the player himself is true to his word – and if representing his country really does mean the world to Griffiths, no matter who is in charge – then the manager has an obligation to welcome him back into the fold as quickly as possible.
The prospect of Naismith back on form and firing on all cylinders, competing against a hungry, motivated Griffiths for a place in McLeish’s attack – or maybe playing alongside the Celtic man – is something Scotland has been waiting for. The nation will not take kindly to being denied such a scenario over something so infantile.
We can all by twits from time to time. Just don’t make the rest of us pay for it.