Griffiths fall out sets alarm bells clanging
FOR the sake of our national team, a group of game young men rarely short of challenges and setbacks, it is to be hoped that sanity prevails in what we must now call The Leigh Griffiths Situation.
A quick solution — one achieved without lasting damage to either party — has to be the fervent wish of anyone who wants Scotland to succeed.
As even the person who ghosted that entirely unconvincing statement of rationalisation on behalf of the Celtic striker must admit, however, it doesn’t look good.
Come on, nobody’s really convinced that this is all about fitness, are they?
Anyone buying that one should beware emails from a Nigerian prince looking for a UK bank account to receive his many millions of US dollars.
Neither will supporters be particularly becalmed by the words of Alex McLeish, despite his expert efforts to walk the impossible line between keeping Griffiths onside and respecting the guys who have turned up for a potentially huge Nations League qualifier in Israel.
Criticism of McLeish on this point is unjustified.
As the Scotland boss pointed out again yesterday, he doesn’t want to ‘throw Griffiths under the bus’.
But he’s right to argue that he ‘can’t guarantee anyone will play’.
Who can argue with that? Is he supposed to fall over himself in a rush to offer promises of future selection?
This latest selection snafu will, of course, be entirely familiar to any Tartan Army foot soldier of even minimum service. What is it with our men in the No 9 jersey?
Or, rather, the guys who think they should be wearing that shirt — only to end up with something in the high double digits on their back?
Kris Boyd and Steven Fletcher are just two of the most recent examples.
Go back far enough and you’ll probably find that Henry RennyTailyour (1849-1920) declared himself unavailable for Scotland’s very first international match because the committee wouldn’t guarantee him a start at centreforward. This situation feels particularly dangerous, not merely because it’s happening right now, when we might, just might, stand a chance of sneaking into a major finals via a side door.
No, the alarm is sounding so loudly because even a semi-permanent fall out between McLeish and Griffiths — one that either denied Scotland the services of the player or undermined the authority of the manager — could be devastating.
There isn’t any one player bigger than the team. Certainly not the national team.
But this isn’t like Tom Cairney possibly, potentially, having second thoughts about representing Scotland now that England are whispered to be interested.
With all due respect to Cairney, he won’t be hugely missed from midfield, still by far the strongest area of the squad.
It was only a matter of weeks ago that McLeish was talking about Griffiths as our ‘talisman’, while bemoaning the absence of any realistic challenger to the established striker of choice. When he was trying to drum up ticket sales for the games against Belgium and Albania, his message basically boiled down to hoping that the Celtic star would get some game time and turn up ready to rifle vital goals past beleaguered opponents. All the way to Euro 2020.
Plenty has happened in the interim, of course. Mainly Steven Naismith proving McLeish right to pick him in the win over Albania.
That was a ‘kick in the teeth’, according to Griffiths. If the player qualified those remarks later, that first reaction probably reflected his true feelings pretty accurately. So let’s not pretend that this is
entirely about some vague desire to get sharp. That could have been done just as easily at Oriam — under the eye of Scotland’s strength and conditioning team — as it can at Lennoxtown. If Griffiths had really wanted to make the effort.
Here’s hoping that, as he watches Scotland romp to victory in Haifa tomorrow night, the 28-year-old — forever prone to disproving anyone daft enough to write him off — suffers just a little pang of regret.
Just enough to nudge him back towards the fold. Then we can slaughter the fatted calf and warmly welcome the return of the prodigal front man.
Provided he can get in the team.