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Griffiths Shows The Rest How To Silence The Critics

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My first post today was on how many people at Celtic Park can’t seem to control themselves in front of the media.

In it I had a wee pop at Leigh for being daft when talking after the game the other day, playing into the hands of our enemies and giving the SFA an excuse to come after him.

But I’ll tell you something about Leigh Griffiths; no other player in our club has taken the kind of shellacking he has from the media, both on the front pages and on the back.

From the minute he arrived at Celtic Park he’s been under tremendous pressure and he’s one of the few, the very few, who did his talking in the only arena that matters … the big green one.

Leigh Griffiths has silenced his critics on the park.

His goals have been vital to our club these last few weeks and months, and this is what makes it all the more frustrating that our board didn’t take some of that pressure off him by signing another striker in the window … and with Leigh now facing two separate SFA cases, one for his wee pub karaoke and the other for his after-match comments, we’re probably going to be without him for quite some time.

We can’t afford that right now.

We couldn’t afford that even if we had signed another forward and were riding high.

Leigh Griffiths is one of the standouts in our team at the moment, one of the very few players who seems always to be enjoying himself out on the pitch, one of the very few rays of sunshine during otherwise gloomy games.

His quality hasn’t surprised me, because I had a good feeling about him when he signed.

What has surprised me is his new level of maturity and even his daft comments at the weekend factor into this because they genuinely frustrated me, as he took a wee step back with them. But overall, the guy is as impressive as Hell right now, and I like him a lot.

He’s just won the Player of the Month award, which he deserves without question and it won’t be his last this season, although the SFA will be adding on games to his potential ban where they can to make sure there aren’t a whole slew of them.

He’s also getting some of the recognition he deserves at international level, with Gordon Strachan now including him in Scotland squads if not playing him in the actual games.

That, too, will come in due course.

He’s the national team’s best forward, by far, and Gordon can only ignore that for so long, going with “tried and tested” (tried and failed) Premiership players.

Leigh’s career is coming on leaps and bounds. I heard a story about him recently, in which someone spotted him out on the pitch with his kids ninety minutes after a game had finished, and he was still rifling in shots and practicing his accuracy.

That is the mark of a professional.

He’s on the top of his game, and still wants to improve.

Leigh Griffiths is becoming a tremendous example for our young players, in how to handle press pressure, how to handle negative reporting, how to handle set backs in his career and of how to rise above all of it, to become a better player and a better person.

We are lucky – we are damned lucky – to have this kid at Celtic Park.

Congratulations Leigh, on the award.

Keep up the outstanding work on behalf of the team.

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  • Aaron griffiths says:

    I was on the pitch too and well done brother on the award goals during the week best striker in scotland

  • Larsson7 says:

    So true James,very impressed with Lee,the annoying thing is,what he said at the weekend is the truth,the whole truth,and nothing but the truth………………..

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