A story of what might have green
Griff’s goals should have made him a Celtic icon
LEIGH GRIFFITHS scored 123 goals for Celtic.
In joining an elite group of ton-plus finishers, he hit 40 in one season to scoop every Player of the Year gong.
He also nailed two of the most famous Scotland goals in Hampden history with his free-kick double against England.
Griffiths struck in the group stages of the Champions League and secured 14 winners’ medals over his eight years at the club.
It seems impossible for anyone looking at those facts to wonder if the very same person could actually have, in some way, under-achieved.
Yet, now Griffiths’ association with the club is over, it’s the natural conclusion. An individual who once had fans eating out of his hand finished up with them booing him on his last-ever appearance for the club, albeit that wasn’t about football.
The questions will always linger on what more there could have been.
Livingston, Dundee, Wolves and Hibs fans had seen the talent which was allowed to blossom on the biggest stages with Celtic but behind the scenes, there always seemed to be issues. Every single one of his managers was forced to speak out and give him a dressing down. Managers usually don’t mind a maverick so long as they are not causing problems.
Griffiths played on the edge, he riled opposition and tied scarves to goalposts, but you can only get away with some things for so long.
There were injury issues which led to lifestyle questions being raised by three bosses.
Ronny Deila was first. Griffiths signed for Neil Lennon for £1million but the Norwegian raised eyebrows when he left the hitman out of his initial sides and fired warnings.
Deila said: “Playing matches is important but being a 24-hour athlete is important as well.
“What you do in matches is important but also to be very aware of what you do every day in training and off the pitch.”
It was a recurring theme and lessons were never learned.
Griffiths delivered for Deila, scoring 40 goals in 2015-16 and could not have been in better form for the arrival of Brendan Rodgers.
Yet the Northern Irishman, renowned for his professional demands, echoed Deila on Griffiths shortly into his reign. He said: “Leigh has to work on every aspect of being a professional. Talent is not enough.
“If he can really focus in on outside of the football field he can be a consistent player for a number of years at the top level. It is not by coincidence he’s injured consistently.
“You have to be a top-level professional and you can’t make excuses. You have to find a way every single day to stabilise your life to maintain the performance.”
Off-field issues continued and Rodgers gave him time away from the game to deal with things at the end of 2018.
Yet having been confronted by images of the player allegedly at the races, Rodgers said: “Leigh was off on grounds of his health so the club are supporting him with that. He is not on holiday.”
Griffiths came back, Lennon returned and, when the manager needed a response to a title challenge from Rangers, he got it.
The striker teamed up with Odsonne Edouard to shine as Celtic were awarded the title when the season was curtailed by Covid.
Yet by the time Celtic returned for football’s restart, he wasn’t fit.
Lennon was scathing as he later revealed: “He’s on full pay for three months of lockdown and he comes back, totally out of condition and a stone overweight.
“Leigh didn’t come in one day, not one day during the lockdown. You can take a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.”
As Ange Postecoglou checked in, Griffiths – having just signed a new one-year deal – was sent home from a pre-season training camp as another offfield situation arose. That saw him being booed by some of his fans and, at that stage, it was effectively over. Leigh Griffiths. A brilliantly-talented striker but a player who tested the patience of too many bosses, too often.