He’s known for his usually pessimistic tones, but Chris Sutton seems to have provided an actually reasonable argument towards the decline of Leigh Griffiths and the strikers’ omission from Steve Clarke’s squad for the upcoming European Championships.
Griffiths, who has amassed 22 caps for Scotland, has been an irregular fixture in the Celtic side this season. Totalling just 18 league appearances all season – with his last start coming in the embarrassing 2-1 loss against St Mirren – Griff has only managed to score six league goals, which puts him joint fourth for the season in Celtic’s top goalscorer list, and joint 21st in the competition overall.
His fitness has been a key issue throughout his career, but Sutton has damned the striker for his inability to stay fit; praising his finishing, but claiming that the player could not finish 90 minutes if he tried.
Speaking on BT Sport, Sutton said: “Leigh Griffiths? We keep hearing this argument: ‘he’s the best finisher’. Fact of the matter is you’re going into a major tournament. What if something happens to Dykes? What if something happens to Adams? If they get injured, can Leigh Griffiths then go and play 90 minutes?
That’s not going to happen. Steve Clarke has got that call spot on.”
Scotland come up against England on the 18th June this year; a fixture which Griff is well remembered for. The Edinburgh-born striker played in the last meeting between the two bitter rivals, scoring two sublime free-kicks in the final knockings of the game to put Scotland 2-1 up, and to score his first international goals for the Tartan Army – however, Harry Kane was the man on hand to break Scottish hearts in the final minute with a back-post equaliser. Who knows – if Griff had been taken to the Euros by Clarke, history may well have repeated itself…
