Ever since Postecoglou was reported to have said that he would talk to Griffiths and find out whether or not he was ready to return to Celtic Park, there have been rumours that he wasn’t going to.
He has not been at first team training. News on a new deal fizzled out.
In the meantime, rather than focussing on getting fit, he sparked a war of words with Neil Lennon.
I wonder if it’s that wholly un-necessary action which has dropped him into the current morass in which he’s found himself. I wonder if that’s why he’s presently training alone and today removed all trace of this club from his social media accounts.
Griffiths’ deal is up tomorrow.
If we’re cutting him loose, we had better have an answer to the question about how we replace his goals.
He is capable of doing a job for us, but only if he keeps himself in shape.
He seemed to be willing to stay and work hard, but if Celtic – and the manager will have had a say in this – have decided he’s not worth keeping then so be it … but his space in the squad badly needs to be filled by someone who is just as deadly in front of goal.
I really don’t have any problem with if we’ve shown the door to the player.
I’ve been a fan of Leigh’s since before he was playing for us, but the last couple of seasons have been characterised by a distinct unprofessionalism which hasn’t served him well and it hasn’t served us particularly well either. To put it bluntly, Griffiths has been largely useless to us.
Had he shown some personal responsibility, we all might be singing a different song right now.
He could have screwed his head on, eschewed the battle with Lennon and proved the manager wrong in the only way that mattered; on the pitch, scoring goals.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why he didn’t just do that instead of waging war in the media with our former manager.
Who benefited from that? It might well be that his media broadside against Lennon, where he accepted no responsibility at all, was the moment people at Parkhead decided, at last, that enough was enough.
Still, there will be an element of doubt here as to how involved Postecoglou was in this decision, and that’s something Celtic needs to clear up. If he wanted a chance to check Griffiths out and make a decision on him and someone over-ruled him then fans will want to know that because it’s the same old interference we hoped we had left behind.
I rather suspect that’s not the case though.
If Griffiths has been binned I reckon it’s the first critical decision of the Postecoglou era, and it does not bode well for anyone who falls below the manager’s standards.
This guy is simply not going to tolerate anything less than people giving their best.