Leigh Griffiths: A Man Ever In Search Of A Negative Headline.

It is impossible not to marvel at the life of Leigh Griffiths away from the football pitch. Every time he seems as if he might get his act together on the field and give himself a chance of rebuilding something of his career he is spectacularly derailed by something that rises out of the headlines and rushes over everything he’s doing like a tsunami.

We don’t know the details of his latest evolving crisis, only what’s in the papers today and that’s not a lot. But in fact, what is it in the papers is speculative nonsense, which has already been confirmed by the non print media.

What we do know is that this is a guy who attracts negative headlines like a bowl of honey attracts the flies. You would stand in amazement at it if you were not too busy jumping backwards to make sure of avoiding the blood spatter.

Who the Hell knows what this latest saga is about? Who the Hell knows whether he did anything wrong or if he’s just caught up in another storm amongst the many that circle him. The question is;how does one person attract so much chaos?

You have to be doing something wrong, right? There has to be more here than just bad luck. The average player never finds himself at the centre of all this controversy.

Even those who wish Leigh well and don’t want to see him in bother have to admit that he has made some lamentable personal decisions which have led to some of these troubles he has. This one, involving “football betting”, is potentially serious.

We don’t know what the full story is here or what the full impact might be yet, and God forbid it relates to his time at Celtic … but it’s the kind of thing that you hear his name connected with and you nod your head without the least surprise.

I wrote earlier in the week about what a tragedy it would be if Griffiths came back to our club with Morton, in the Scottish Cup, and found himself booed by the fans. The chances of that are looking increasingly remote.

Even if the guy has done nothing wrong, even if he was a wholly innocent party caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, most clubs would look at this latest incident and probably conclude that this guy is just not worth the hassle, just not worth the risk.

This is the definition of a tragedy, and more; this is a cautionary tale for any player just starting his career in the game. Talent is not enough. Application and discipline are just as important, and these are the things that he has neglected.

Not on the pitch, where no-one could fault him for the better part of his time, but off it … and any kid who thinks that doesn’t matter should look at he wreckage of Leigh Griffiths’ final years and learn.