Chris Sutton is worried about the Parkhead future of the Celtic star after the recent turn of events caused a lot of controversy.
Not one to hold back in any situation, Chris Sutton has given his thoughts on the standards that Leigh Griffiths failed to maintain during lockdown, per The Daily Record. A failure which he feels ended up disrespecting manager Neil Lennon and his Celtic teammates alike.
Instead of taking part in the friendly games against Lyon, Nice and PSG he has had to stay at Lennoxtown and get his strength and conditioning work in:
"“Everyone knows the hard yards you need to go through in lockdown – there are no excuses. It was vital to maintain focus and stay on top of fitness.”"
It is crucial that everyone is on there A game ahead of the push for 10IAR and quarantine shutdown is no excuse in Sutton’s eyes:
"“The players would all have had programmes.“It’s just stupid. Neil Lennon will feel let down. If I was a team-mate I’d feel hacked off.“Griffiths had a huge part in Celtic winning the title. He got a lot of credit the way he came back from his problems and rightly so.“To have fitness issues at this stage though is just unprofessional.“It wouldn’t surprise me if he managed to get Griffiths back to a level again.”"
Griffiths has had an incredible run with Celtic, at times, scoring forty goals in the 2015-2016 and was once in contention for one of the all time greats. Since then he has mixed results and the motivation factor definitely prevents him from becoming all he can be.
With the summer transfer’s ongoing, Celtic have begun to fill in spots on the team, and Griffiths isn’t exactly fighting to maintain his station in the pack.
He has to work his backside off. Griffiths has to be careful. Celtic spent a lot of money on Patryk Klimala and at some point he will get opportunities:
"“There is Vakoun Bayo there as well. If there are doubts about the fitness of Griffiths though, Lennon will be thinking about buying a striker.”"
He worked hard last season to rise to the expectations at The Hoops, he know has to dig deep and show he can still hang with premier talent. If he can’t hack it then a hungry Patryk Klimala could slide into his role on first team.
Griffiths is not completely shot though, before the football season ended due to the outbreak of the novel corona virus he scored a hat trick in the final game. Not bad for someone who people have claimed is done in, pundits like the always chirpy Kris Commons.
The striker has given his own thoughts on his exclusion from first team and the road to recovery ahead of him.
It is a real Rocky moment for the 29 year old, the final round.
Does Leigh Griffiths rise in the fourteenth to shock the footballing world?