Yesterday I said that Leigh Griffiths was not our problem anymore and that we should be glad about it.
This morning he has formally been charged by Police Scotland for the incident the other night when he kicked a smoke bomb into the crowd because people in it were singing a naughty song about him. This man has been the architect of this whole mess.
A section of the Celtic fans famously booed him the last time he took the field for us. That was the moment when he must have known that it was over. Dundee are well within their rights to terminate his loan because of this incident.
The question is, should we tear up his one-year deal based on it?
There is no question of him coming back to Parkhead and playing in this team, it’s just not going to happen. Every player has clauses in his contract which allow for termination in the event of criminal charges, so we probably have the legal right to end this farce once and for all.
If Dundee do cancel the loan, Celtic should think about it.
This mess has moved on from us, we certainly don’t want any situation where this again becomes a problem for us to deal with. The charge is “culpable and reckless conduct”; those words could have summed up the latter years of his whole career.
Celtic will be monitoring this carefully. He almost certainly faces a long SFA disciplinary ban, so if Dundee cancel the deal that will not be in the least bit surprising. We should be working out how we’re going to handle this if they do.
I can’t see him ever being made welcome at Celtic Park after this. He’s proven that we were right to get him out the door before the window shut.
That he’s been unable to just keep his head down and play the game, knowing this might have been his last chance to save some fraction of his career, speaks volumes.
His daft apology yesterday cut no slack at all, and he must have known, and Dundee must have known, that it would not.
He is a born idiot.
Had so many chances and blow them all, he is a loose cannon, we can do without
Give the guy a break, he never intended to hurt anyone, the people throwing the flares should be arrested, I am fed up with so called Celtic fans attacking a man who has given so much to the club, get behind him or shut up
He never intended to hurt anyone? Aye right. Booting a flare into a crowd was just an effort at tidying up some litter was it? Gie’s peace FFS!
At what point does his behaviour outweigh his contribution to the club’s success? He’s been given chance after chance and the club has stood by him but he continually spits in our faces with his stupidity. He is a disruption we don’t need, especially at the moment, and he should be released immediately. Maybe that might make him realise he needs to grow the hell up and behave like an adult – what kind of role model does he think he is for his many, many children….?
That’ll be the same flare he pulled from his pocket and lit? What the hell was the flare doing on the pitch in the first place?!
Not defending – not my job to – but just this once is it not possible he’s a victim of circumstance here? Maybe not, but let’s resort to kicking him in the bollocks while’s down, eh? We’re supposed to better than that, FFS!
No he didn’t light the flare, of course it shouldn’t have been there. Why? Because they are DANGEROUS. Less dangerous on the side of a field than in with a group of fans. One bad act does not absolve another and Griffiths surely must have known on some level that what he was going to do was another stupid mistake but he went ahead and did it anyway. I know he’s had his issues with depression and self-destructive behaviour is a part of that but this isn’t just his life we’re talking about here. Those fans could have been hurt and for what? An act of petulance?
The club has stood by him time and again when others would have let him go long before. I’m not trying to kick him in the bollocks when he’s down, but enough has to be enough at some point. What will it take to make people like you realise that allowing him to do this kind of thing again and again is helping neither him or us?
Anyway, if it wasn’t for his own repeated stupidity we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. Unlike Neil Lennon he actually brings it on himself.
Thank goodness you weren’t about when Jinky played or he would off be shown the door as well.
Really liked Reading this blog till recently James u seem so bitter now.
Steve
At least he doesn’t take the bystander approach like the rest of our club and fans that actually sound like they’re in support of the corrupt SFA. You know the SFA that support a deid club like they never cheated or died, their filthy cheating referees, bottles thrown at Griffiths for years and he gets booked, where ‘s the SFA then. Where are when EUFA fine the rankers for their anti Irish/Catholic abuse in Europe and nothing, nothing, nothing gets done here for it week in week out. He’s stood up against those that conspire against us, and yes ‘flares’ up on occasion. Shame the rest of us sit by and take the abuse. Passive Celtic, passive fans. For example he’s the only one from our club that’s publicly told them their club’s deid. HH Leigh thanks for the years of service