Neil Lennon rubbishes Celtic star’s transfer exit rumours

Neil Lennon has decided to rubbish the transfer exit rumours surrounding the Celtic star but questions still remain.

Celtic have let go of a number of players in this transfer window in their quest to get rid of the deadwood before they can bring players in. But it looks like one player who will not be leaving this season is Leigh Griffiths, if Neil Lennon’s comments are to be believed.

This week Griffiths was celebrating his 30th Birthday, hopefully no big cake presentations or party was involved this time! That event plus his ongoing absence and some wild rumours about a loan to Aberdeen have triggered questions on his future. We laid a few questions out ourselves about the player a couple of weeks ago with the signing of Ajeti imminent, then the BBC ran an article this week “What now for the Celtic & Scotland striker?’

Various pundits provided their views on Leigh, perhaps Billy Dodds had the most sensible thoughts. He used to coach Griffiths in his time some years ago now at Dundee:

"“He has delivered on his talent, but not regularly enough.“He is the best natural finisher Scotland have. When he’s fit, focused and playing every week – like he was at the tail-end of last season – he’s such an asset to the national team.”"

Pat Bonner also commented and shared the view of others about Griffiths needing to train hard and get back playing soon:

"“Leigh needs to focus, tune in, get fit and out to play somewhere.“Perhaps he should go out on loan just to get some match time.”"

When Griffiths made his return to the team pre-season against Hibernian, after being left behind for the club trip to France, it did look as if he was heading back to a regular playing slot. Neil Lennon has though now stated that a return to the first team isn’t as perhaps imminent as many thought.

Alison Conroy, Radio Clyde, reported from Lennon’s media conference today that Griffiths is still weeks away from that first team return. A calf injury is mentioned but he’s still going to have to work on his general fitness to get back to being available and ready.

Lennon also ruled out the loan that Bonner suggested and that has been rumoured elsewhere. Aberdeen are short of strikers and social media has been speculating.

But Lennon said there is no chance of Griffiths leaving on a loan. And while that clarifies things to some extent, it possibly raises as many questions as it answers. What is preventing his return to action being the main one?

As always with Griffiths, the mystery is often greater than the practical reality, let’s hope he can overcome and get back playing and scoring soon. That is if he hasn’t missed his chance in the queue to get into a striker’s position again for the Hoops.