Leigh Griffiths is spending the early part of his summer working with boxing coaches in order to get himself fully fit as he looks to get himself back in the game after starting last season at Celtic before heading to Dundee and then to Falkirk before ending up as a free agent looking for a new club.
Brendan Rodgers was probably the first to warn Griffiths that he had to embrace the modern athlete approach which includes a different type of lifestyle that he’d been used to. On the day Rodgers arrived at Celtic Park to be greeted by around 13,000 supporters Griffiths was also there so would have been one of the first Celtic players the incoming Celtic manager met. And Griffiths had just finished the previous season scoring 40 goals to deliver another title but it was always clear that Rodgers saw the flaws and just relying on ability alone was never going to be enough.
He was given plenty of warning by Rodgers, Neil Lennon and even Ange Postecoglou but all went the extra mile to help Griffiths get onto a proper track that would have allowed him to flourish in the modern game. During the lockdown period Griffiths reported back overweight and out of condition and things have never been the same again for him as a top quality performer in Scottish football.
Controversies always seemed never too far away from Griffiths before, during and after his time at Celtic but as his effectiveness faded the opportunities have declined and now that the penny has finally dropped he appears to be doing all he can to get himself in the proper shape – surely the least a professional footballer in the modern game can do – as he seeks to convince another manager to put some faith in him.
Someone might be tempted and if that happens we can only hope that this time Leigh repays the faith shown in him. The former Celtic striker has been speaking to Daily Record about his new found commitment to get himself fully fit and to keep playing as he eyes a deal that will allow that to happen.
“It’s a difficult time just now as I see clubs going back for pre-season and wonder when is it going to be my turn?” Griffiths told Daily Record. ““I’m not going to lie, it gets lonely. It knocks my confidence not having my future sorted but people such as Martin Clifford at the boxing gym have been brilliant at keeping my head above water. Six days a week I’m in training and all of this work will come to the fore when I get back onto the pitch.
“I’m ready to go but when is that chance going to come, is it going to come? Some of the sessions Martin puts on are absolutely brutal. I don’t envy any boxer who does this work to prepare for a fight as it’s so intense. Boxers are a different breed and footballers get it easy compared to them.
“I wish I’d done this type of training earlier in my career and if I’d done more in the off-season I wouldn’t be in this position. I’m now a free agent and hopefully I’ll be back scoring goals shortly.
“I’ve lost 5 kilos so far but I’ve never been heavy even if other people would disagree with that and I still have a bit to go as I want to lose another two kilos. My best weight is 73 kilos, when I had my best scoring season at Celtic I was around 72-73 kilos.
“People can hate me or not hate me but what they can’t take away is where I sit in the all-time scoring chart at Celtic which is 18th or 19th. That’s something I will have forever but I still have plenty more goals and targets ahead of me.”
Few if any Celtic fans hate Leigh Griffiths. That’s something that’s reserved for the hate merchants elsewhere in the Scottish game and to be fair over the years Griffiths did his bit to wind them up, wrapping Celtic scarfs around the goalposts at Ibrox and such like. But there is a frustration that for all the ability he has been a waster in terms of what he could have achieved.
Now the 6 day strict training regime in the boxing world has apparently seen the penny drop for Griffiths himself we can only hope that its not happened too late as far as his playing days are concerned. Certainly happy to wish him all the best.
of course he’s fit he’s looking for a job. doubt, in fact i know he would not be in that shape if falkirk had gave him a contract, trying to say he was never overweight tells a lot. sad to say griff will be one of the very few, maybe the only player in these times who has done well at celtic and will end up skint, can see the double spread now in some rag ” where it all went wrong “. he might be worth a punt for some club on a pay as you play basis, but if he could not get a contract at falkirk there is something amiss, being chased by 3 clubs in one season, celic, dundee and falkirk does not look good on the cv. said it before when he was out for about a year, part of me thought he was at it, not at the start when i have no doubt things got to him and he could not cope, but i think he got used to getting paid for nothing and ripped the rear end out of it, if he was told after 3 months he was getting paid statuary sick pay like most people ( if they are lucky ) he would have been back in pronto. sorry but after what a lot of people have went through these last couple of years cannot be bothered with griffs sob stories, in saying that i hope he gets a club and does well, hard to see it though.