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Neil Lennon Knows Leigh Griffiths’ Worth, And He’s The Only One Who Has To.

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Chris Sutton, shame on you.

Shame on you for your rush to judgement and your presumption.

Shame on you for thinking you know the mind of the manager and for jumping right in there to attack Leigh Griffiths based on what you assume to be true.

No shame on Kris Commons, who leaped in where he always does and make exactly the same set of assumptions.

No shame because he has none anyway and this isn’t the first – and won’t be the last – time he attacks Celtic or someone at Celtic like this.

And what a cheek he has to criticise players for lack of fitness. There were times during his spell at Celtic Park where I had a slimmer build than him.

He has some brass neck, and he must think we all have short memories.

Nobody knows what was going on with Leigh Griffiths during lockdown, but with his history it’s surely not impossible that he had a tough time of it. Nobody will know what that’s like better than our manager, who has gone through his own personal struggles.

So many commentators presume to know how our manager feels about Griffiths being left behind. So many of them simply assume that the manager is furious. I don’t know that he isn’t, but I believe that Lennon understands Leigh Griffiths better than most of us do and I do know for sure that he gets the player’s value to our club.

It’s worth its weight in goals, if you’ll pardon the pun.

According to one a paper today – one which spoke to people close to both manager and player – Leigh and Neil have had a talk about things and the manager has assured him that this is not a major issue and that his future at the club is secure. That’s all any of us needs to know.

In spite of some of the hacks and some of the commenteriat trying to turn this into a major thing, it’s a player not being fully up to speed with his fitness, nothing else.

It’s not a disciplinary issue.

The guy hasn’t breached curfew or violated the club code of conduct.

He wasn’t caught out on the lash with a bunch of strippers … the reaction to this has been over the top.

Leigh Griffiths is never going to be the athlete someone like Edouard is.

But one of the reasons the media would dearly love him out of Celtic Park is that he’s a better penalty box striker, a better natural scorer, than any other player in the country and that includes his compatriot who very soon will have the Number 7 shirt.

Eddie is a better footballer … but Leigh has always had that striker’s instinct, which is impossible to teach, and which fitness doesn’t impact on.

Look at Kris Boyd; that clown doesn’t have an ounce of Griffiths’ natural talent, but he, too, had that sharpness in front of goal. It is the rarest thing in football.

Griffiths is going nowhere. He will get fit and be back in the team soon enough. Lennon will be sticking with the two up front, and he is crucial to the plan. We have two other strikers at the club, but he and Eddie are the best partnership and Lennon know it.

And Lennon’s is the only opinion that matters here at all.

On Wednesday, this site will publish an unpdated version of our A-Z of Scottish Football Scandal. In the meantime, take the below quiz and see how much you know about some of the most shocking events in the game’s recent history.

1 of 14

Which word is the media resistent to using about the events of 2012?

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