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Griffiths’ Mistake Is Not The Celtic Manager’s. Don’t Let Anyone Blame Him.

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Whatever Leigh Griffiths has or hasn’t done, there will be some who go out of their way to hang this around the neck of Ange Postecoglou because he gave the player a new one-year deal.

Ange doesn’t deserve to be criticised for that, far less blamed.

The media will be leading the line on this, but some of our own fans might be tempted to do the same.

You have to remember, Ange wanted to give everyone a fresh start.

He’s come into a club where he only has other people’s opinions to fall back on and I think it’s entirely refreshing that this man isn’t willing to simply write people off, but wants to give them a chance.

And yet, for all that, there are people inside Celtic Park who know what Griffiths is like, and who do have experience in dealing with him and his issues. What did those people do when Ange was weighing up this decision?

Did they offer guidance or advice? Or did they shirk that responsibility and allow him to do this without all the proper information?

Of course, even if Ange had been forewarned that Griffiths was one of those people always likely to do something daft, nobody could have envisioned something as daft as this.

Ange took his decision based on two things; his wish to start with a clean slate and an analysis of what Griffiths might be able to do for the team. Wholly understandable.

Remember, he knows next to nothing about Griffiths’ past behaviour, only what he’s been told and most of that would have revolved around some issues with fitness and the occasion off-field news story.

Nobody saw this coming, even those in a better position to have warned against the deal. McKay too is a relative stranger to the Griffiths affair … he has also been caught blindsided by it and no blame should accrue to him over it either.

In the end, one person and one person alone is responsible for this mess and that’s the player himself, a player who seems almost pathologically determined to undermine anyone who gives him a chance at redemption.

So when anyone attempts to point the finger at Ange or McKay for this, claiming that they should have had better judgement, then that person is pursuing an agenda or demonstrating pig ignorance of the worst kind and should be called out for it.

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