Mean streets of Leith now beyond Griffiths
THEY see less of Leigh Griffiths on the streets of Leith now than they used to. He no longer plays for Hibernian for a start. Reinventing himself as Celtic’s top scorer, the front-page headlines are also less evident. If no one imagines he now spends his days trainspotting, the nights seem a little quieter than they once were.
‘Leigh used to put himself around in the Leith area,’ says Tam Currie, his former coach at boys club Leith Athletic. ‘Not that he was doing anything off limits.
‘But I’ve not spoken to him in a good while. Before you would see quite a bit of him round here. But we don’t see nearly as much of him now as we used to.’
It may be a conscious thing. Google the words ‘Leigh Griffiths and controversy’ in the same search and there are more answers than pubs on Leith Walk.
There were t he charges on shop-lifting from a Tesco store in Corstorphine. He was cleared but made f urther headlines after fathering four children by three different women. In football, people talk and older, wiser colleagues and managers whispered of a player with a reputation for being unmanagable.
‘There was never any doubt about the boy’s ability,’ says f ormer Dundee manager Gordon Chisholm.
‘ It was the off- field stuff that concerned you.
‘He was a young boy when I had him. He was quiet, withdrawn at times, and wasn’t exactly the life and soul of the dressing room.
‘He kept himself to himself — but he couldn’t get back to Edinburgh quick enough.
‘That seemed to be the case any time he got a day off. Any spare time and he wanted back to Leith to be with his mates, which probably wasn’t a good thing. I’m not sure he was doing the right kind of things.
‘ I’m sure he is now being guided by the Celtic management team.’
It has taken time, work and effort to get to a point where Griffiths can now boast 14 goals in his last 17 games.
As a child, he stood out in Edinburgh amateur football. But concerns about the impact of his formative years on the company he kept prompted Hi b s , his boyhood idols, to reject his talents.
‘It’s well known he could be a feisty character,’ recalls Currie, a Leith Athletic committee member.
‘I go back with Leigh to when he was 12 and he was a lad who had to be looked after.
‘He came from a split family and you take on the role of social worker in that situation. But he was no different from the others in that regard.
‘He was like any other young lad. He had his troubles with different folk and what not.’
‘Troubles with different folk’ is a polite way of summing up his career. Boldly, Neil Lennon took a gamble on signing him for £ 900,000 in January 2013. Celtic supporters were underwhelmed.
Griffiths had accumulated yet more front-page cuttings while on loan at Hibs from Wolverhampton Wanderers following a racism row on social media.
The doubts over his perceived shortcomings as a human being were amplified when he returned to Leith — where else? — to attend an Edinburgh derby as a Hibs fan. He was in a pub where offensive chants about Hearts and former Tynecastle attacker Rudi Skacel were filmed and posted on the internet.
In October, he will stand trial on offensive Celtic is apparent and, perhaps for that reason, Lennon’s successor, Ronny Deila, appeared to make a judgment the player wasn’t worth the hassle.
Yet the Norwegian’s attitudes to Griffiths began to soften when the player opted to drive three hours to play for Celtic’s development team against Sunderland of his own accord.
Within days he was back in the first team, scoring in a 2-1 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice. In the five months since, he has usurped John Guidetti in the starting XI and is now regarded as Deila’s most potent attacker.
‘He looks as if he has matured as a player,’ adds Chisholm, now a scout with Sunderland.
‘ He never wanted to be an out-and-out striker when I had him at Dundee. He always drifted out into wide areas.
‘He still does that, but I think he has improved. His hold-up play and movement is better. ‘He is playing with good quality players, getting better service and I’m hopeful he has turned a corner now.’ Bolton and Hibs wanted Griffiths on loan in the last window. The court case notwithstanding, however, his No 28 Celtic shirt looks a better fit now than it did even three months ago.
‘ He i s silencing a f ew critics now,’ says Currie, with Griff i t hs having grabbed his second hat- trick of the season against Dundee United on Sunday.
‘The Celtic supporters didn’t fancy him much. But it looks to me like he has turned the corner.’
He was quiet and he wasn’t exactly the life and soul of the dressing room