TWO OF A KIND
Griffiths vows to fire Celts to tenth title with Edouard
LEIGH GrIffItHs says he is absolutely certain that Celtic’s best football will deliver a ten-in-arow triumph. And he has urged strike partner Odsonne Edouard to stick around for next season’s shot at history.
Griffiths admits he and his team-mates will be under enormous pressure to clinch a recordbreaking tenth consecutive league title.
But the scotland striker insisted: ‘Now that nine is secured, the next step is ten. ‘We are under no illusions about how hard it will be. the players will be fully focused but teams will be dying to stop us, especially rangers.
‘It’s about what we do. If we play our best football in games, we know we will win the league.’
Describing next season as the biggest in the club’s history, Griffiths said: ‘there is always going to be pressure at Celtic to win titles.
‘But this one will mean a hell of a lot more than some before. It will be talked about for a long time. It’s up to us as players to go out and deliver.
‘If we have signings coming in, it will be drummed into them quickly that this is the biggest season in the club’s history. We are going for ten and we need to be at it from the first kick-off.’
Griffiths is aware, meanwhile, that Edouard has been scouted by some of the biggest teams in the world. But he’s keen to continue a partnership that, following a mid-season change of formation, saw the dynamic duo score 15 times from 10 starts.
‘I want him to be here, 100 per cent,’ said the 29-year-old. ‘I see rumours all the time that he is being linked with massive clubs. But don’t forget that we are a massive club as well, so we want him to stay. ‘If he stays one more season and plays as well as he has done over the last 18 months, he’d be a big, big asset in us reaching the ten in a row.
‘It’s up to the manager to decide what games we would play and what formations he’d like to use.
‘But I think he knows that there’s an understanding there and it’s not as if it is something that is going to be chucked together. We know how we are going to play together.
‘Odsonne likes to come short and I like to go long, so we complement each other.’
Griffiths revealed that Lennon had pulled him aside after last May’s scottish Cup final to reinforce his importance to the club. And, although he had to wait until after the winter shutdown to get serious playing time alongside Edouard, the work done during that break paid off immediately.
In the 10 games they started together before play was suspended on the eve of Celtic’s trip to Ibrox, Griffiths fired eight goals — while Edouard hit the net seven times.
Although Lennon stuck with playing one up front in Europe, rangers may well have been asked to cope with this Auld Alliance pairing in the heat of battle.
‘the gaffer said to me after the scottish Cup final he wanted me to come back and be ready for pre-season, because he wanted me to play a big part,’ said Griffiths.
‘then it was a bit stop-start again but, after January, I played well — me and Odsonne were on fire.
‘It would have been interesting to see how the gaffer would have gone at Ibrox in the game that was due before the shutdown, if he’d have played one up or two up.
‘We’ll never know, but we’ll see when the games come around again and see what the manager is thinking.
‘I’m sure the fans are desperate to watch it in the stands — or watch on the tV — when we come back, to see how we can continue the partnership. Hopefully, at the end of the season, we’ll be history makers again.’
Like many, Griffiths is still trying to adapt to the idea of games without fans there to provide atmosphere. And the animosity.
‘It’ll be strange going to some stadiums away from home like Ibrox or tannadice or wherever — and I won’t be getting any stick,’ he said, adding with a laugh: ‘I’ll be feeling quite good.
‘the quicker the fans get back to enjoy their teams playing football, the better. When we have away games, there are often more Celtic fans there than there are for the home team. We want them back.
‘But we need to comply with the Government. And we know our fans will be behind us, even if they are not inside the stadium and they are watching on the tV.
‘We’ve all seen the guidance and, as long as everyone complies, sport will come back quicker than if they don’t.
‘We’ll find our ways to deal with whatever happens. We’ll go back next week into training and we’ll have a meeting about how big next season is. the fans are excited for it and so are the players.’
Under contract until the end of season 2021-22, Griffiths will celebrate his 30th birthday in August.
Given everything he has seen Celtic skipper scott Brown achieve since he hit the big three-oh four years ago now, the frontman is hardly ready to start winding down.
‘I feel as though I can keep going so long as I keep myself injury-free,’ he said.
‘As long as I don’t sustain any bad injuries, I feel as though I have a long, long time to go — and hopefully it’s at Celtic.’