Not in same league as Suarez, but where would Brendan be without golden Bhoy Griffiths?
LEIGH GRIFFITHS will share a pitch with Luis Suarez in Dublin this evening but, in footballing terms, the two strikers occupy different stratospheres.
Suarez moved from Ajax to Liverpool for £23million. Celtic stumped up under a million for Griffiths.
The Uruguayan almost led Liverpool to the English title single-handedly in 2014, scoring 31 goals in a campaign widely rated as the finest individual season by any player in the history of the Premier League.
Griffiths spent a season or two knocking about England’s lower leagues with Wolves before scuttling back up the M6.
Like Suarez, the Scotland striker has fuelled a few front pages in his time. But Griffiths reserved most of his love bites for the female population of Edinburgh.
On a number of levels, comparing the two is apples and pears stuff.
Suarez left Anfield for Barcelona for £75million and if a club in England offered a tenth of that for Scotland’s top scorer, chief executive Peter Lawwell would drive him south personally.
A couple of weeks ago Brendan Rodgers might even have started the engine. But now? With that Champions League goal in Astana on Wednesday night, Griffiths proved himself a huge asset to the Celtic manager.
A player every bit as valuable to the Rodgers Celtic era as Suarez was when he came to within a whisker of winning the English title.
A player who, more than any other, will bail Scotland’s champions out of tight spots when others can’t.
Credit Patrick Roberts. The Manchester City winger has the capacity to illuminate Celtic. His trickery and skill is a joy to watch at times. He’s becoming a cult hero.
But Roberts didn’t save Ronny Deila from the ignominy of losing the league title to Aberdeen. Griffiths did that with his 40 goals.
It’s mildly incredible now to consider the sniffy response of Parkhead supporters back in the day. Some watched him while holding their nose. The reasons for that were multiple.
His off-field reputation was poor. Immature and easily led in his younger days, the striker drew front-page headlines for unsavoury reasons.
There was a racism storm on Twitter, a shop-lifting accusation as well.
But Scottish players have always had to work that bit harder to impress Celtic supporters, whatever their back story.
Had Neil Lennon signed Leigh Griffakis or Leigh Griffovski, the new Bhoy would have acquired an instant hero status.
But, in football, the devil you know is treated with contempt.
Make no mistake, Griffiths has been idiotic at times. His own worst enemy.
Racist chants in a pub about Hearts player Rudi Skacel earned him a final warning. Frankly, he was a lucky Bhoy to survive.
Astana’s efforts to get him banned for a shove in midweek show he still falls some way short of being a footballing Mother Teresa.
But the growth and development of Griffiths as a footballer has been matched by his progress as a human being.
Warned to clean up his act — or else — he got the head down. When Deila wanted to pack him back to Hibernian on loan, he knuckled down and scored goals.
So many goals, no one would be surprised now if he leads the line for Gordon Strachan in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Some Celtic supporters remain grudging in their affections. Many still think their club can do better.
Griffiths is, to many, that most heinous of characters; the ‘SPFL player’.
A footballer good enough to knock down skittles in the Scottish Premiership. But not good enough to take the club to the Champions League.
The events of Kazakhstan, then, should prompt yet another handbrake turn.
Under Rodgers, Celtic spent an hour playing like a Ronny Deila team. Unable to defend corners. Living on their wits. Flying by the seats of their pants.
Frankly, they were lucky to be just one down after an hour.
But Griffiths has that most valuable of talents. The ability to sniff out a goal from nothing.
Surviving on a starvation diet, he found the spark of energy to rifle the ball into the Astana net with 12 minutes to play. The pendulum of the tie had swung in an instant.
Whatever Celtic’s management and players say publicly, they are now favourites to progress at home next week.
They can still dream of lining up against Barcelona when it really matters.
For that, Brendan Rodgers can give thanks for Leigh Griffiths; Celtic’s cut-price Suarez.