Great stuff today from Leigh Griffiths, both his magnificent overhead effort in training and the way he has spoken about how willing he is to fight, fight and fight again for his place in the Celtic team. That’s the language I want to hear all of our players speak, it’s the way I want them all to talk.
Every position is being challenged for, and no-one is afraid of it.
No player has been as frustrated at Celtic Park for the term of Brendan’s leadership as Leigh has. It’s well known. He believes he should be in the team, and when he is he generally plays like a guy who belongs there. He scores goals and lays them on and he works damned hard.
He has improved under Brendan Rodgers and he knows it himself.
But Leigh Griffiths arrived at Celtic Park at a time when we needed a guy with his explicit skill-set; the ability to get on the end of chances, making that little opening for himself, and punishing the weaknesses of defenders.
He has been exceptional in that role.
The thing is, Leigh Griffiths is not the only person at the club who can perform that function now and the others just happen to be two French Under 21 internationalists, one of the toughest and best finishing schools in the game. Griffiths has become a better player under this manager … but even with that he’s up against two exceptional footballers.
One of them is a target for enormous clubs and we’d easily get an eight figure sum for him.
We just paid a club record for the other.
And that means his game time will continue to be limited, or at least that’s how the papers will put it in an effort to unsettle him. For all his frustration, he never has become unsettled. His determination to stay and do battle for the jersey is amazing. He is going to continue to be an important player far into our future.
But he’s not a guaranteed starter anymore.
Nobody at Celtic Park should be a guaranteed starter. We are fortunate that these are all players who would walk into any other starting eleven in the country, and would be key members of most squads in England as well. Competition is healthy … Leigh Griffiths’ response has been healthy.
We will reap the benefits of that.