Sutton comes down heavy on those who let their discipline slide at Celtic, lack of professionalism is a surefire way to get on the famous pundit’s bad side.
There has been some recent Celtic drama surrounding one of the club’s biggest stars, and legend Chris Sutton isn’t holding back. It is a reasonable mark to be annoyed by this weeks target who has messed up in a big way. Leigh Griffiths has had a roller coaster ride of a career, with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It seems that the veteran has sunk to new lows this week, resulting in an impending sit down with The Hoops boss Neil Lennon.
While Griffiths stayed back at Lennoxstown during the France trip to work on his fitness, the fitness that he neglected while the world was under the grip of the global pandemic, Celtic played three friendlies in France.
Sutton believes that Griffiths is now fighting for his job as a striker at Celtic. He gave his thoughts on the failings of the talented player on The Daily Record Podcast:
"“Where he stands right now is fighting for his career, at Celtic and maybe for his football career full stop.“I find the whole thing, and I know that Leigh’s had problems and we sympathise with that but this, through the four months of Lockdown has been an opportunity for Leigh to really get in ship-shape condition.“He has had massive issues with his fitness levels, came back, transformed Celtic’s season. That two up top, he linked well with Edouard, they were phenomenal. Great to see him back, he seemed happy.“While all the other players would have had programmes the same as Leigh during the period that they were off he should have used that opportunity to get himself into tip top condition. And he’s let the club down badly. He’s let his team-mates down, it’s pretty deplorable.“How valuable has Leigh Griffiths been to Celtic? Even last season when it looked at times that it wasn’t quite going to happen. More importantly was the change of system and his value to that particular system and it worked, it transformed Celtic’s season.“Now they’ve gone into pre-season games, I know that they played a back five against PSG but they can’t even work on that particular system because he’s not there.“That may work against Celtic in the early games, in the Champions League qualifiers which we know will be one game shoot-outs so you need your best players ready and it doesn’t look like Leigh is going to be ready.“He only has himself to blame, there are absolutely no excuses. There is no point posting things on social media ‘I’m going to get fit now. If I was a member of the current Celtic team I’d be having harsh words with him.“With what is at stake for Celtic this season they’ll feel let down. Do Celtic have a ready-made replacement for Leigh in the wings? Bayo, No. Klimala all be it he has bulked up a bit in pre-season and tried as hard they’re not as good as Leigh Griffiths.“So, therefore, Celtic are down to one striker at this moment in time. That’s all because, quite frankly Leigh Griffiths couldn’t be ar*** to go running when everybody else was.”"
There’s definitely a fine balance when it comes to the pieces of first team, and it seems that Lennon factors Griffiths into this balance. With the push for 10IAR coming soon, it appears that Griffiths may not be in tip top physical condition to be part of this history.
The defenders and the goalkeeper could play an absolute beauty of a season and still suffer defeat due to a tried and true statement – The best defense is a good offense.
Sure, Lennon has allowed Griffiths to remain on the team due to his success in scoring in games past but that special talent he has for striking can only be of any use if he can put himself in positions of advantage.
Edouard is hanging around this coming season, the only questions remains is will Leigh Griffiths be by his side? Can he keep up?