IT IS UNLIKELY that Leigh Griffiths required much more persuasion to get match sharp than watching Celtic’s impressive return to competitive action last night, but just in case he had any lack of motivation, there have been a couple of warning shots fired in his direction.
Patryck Klimala – Leigh’s main competition for a first team jersey – turned his lockdown fitness edge into a goalscoring return when he entered the fray in Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Nice in Lyon. It’s almost as if all that extra work transferred itself to success on the field of play and it’s something that will have given Leigh Griffiths food for thought.
Furthermore, Neil Lennon hasn’t exactly been mincing his words when it comes to his public utterances over his decision to leave Griffiths behind while the team headed first for Loughborough and then onto this week’s trip to Lyon and Paris.
As reported on Glasgow Live, Lenny is not only unhappy with Griffith’s physical state but also his decision to turn to social media to get his message across. Something it would seem he had been directed not to.
He said: “I’m not happy. I think that’s fairly obvious by the fact that we’ve left him behind.
“He’s come back out of condition and overweight. Any physical work we asked him to do he was coming out of saying he was injured. That’s going to be the case because he’s out of condition.
“It would have been absolutely pointless bringing him with us. We had an extensive week in Loughborough and he wouldn’t have been fit to play the games here.
“The ball is firmly in his court in terms of getting in the right condition.
“He needs to stop all the social media nonsense with all these slogans he puts out there.
“The boys here are all top professionals and I have a great staff who are all professional as well. They deserve better and he should know better.
“He needs to get his head down and get fit because that’s what we pay him for.
“Did I have words with him? I did, yeah. I told him he wouldn’t be coming on the trip and that we were bitterly disappointed in how he’s come back.
“Since then I’m disappointed with his reaction on social media when we’ve asked him not to engage on it because it just becomes a downward spiral.
“We’ve done everything we possibly could. He’s had a long lay-off, he came back and he got back into the team. For me he was still a bit short fitness-wise but enough to get through the Scottish games.
“But if he wants to have a future here at the club it’s down to himself.
“We’re not prepared to do a lot more for him. Everything’s there for him. He’s let himself down and he’s let us down.
“You can never say never about chances but he’s got a lot to do to get back around it. It shouldn’t have come to this. He shouldn’t have been out of condition and shouldn’t have been heavier.”
It seems then that Leigh Griffiths is at the last chance saloon stage of his Celtic career. Lennon has clearly decided there will be no extra assistance, no more kit gloves. It will be down to Griffiths himself to get himself into the physical condition required to compete for a first team jersey. Even when he does he now finds a driven and professional Patryck Klimala has grabbed his own opportunity to shine.
Klimala has bulked up. An extra 3.5 kilos of muscle has been added to his frame and he clearly has a work ethic that will be met with approval by Neil Lennon and the coaching staff. If Klimala can add goals and consistency to his evident hunger to succeed, then Leigh Griffiths may be about to face genuine competition for a shirt that was his to lose after Celtic’s 5-0 win over St Mirren in March. Prior to lockdown Griffiths had hit peak form, he and Odsonne Edouard had a blossoming partnership that looked un-droppable.
Now? What a difference a few months has made. Griffiths is out the picture for now and has a young pretender to contend with.
Neil Lennon has thrown down the gauntlet and last night Patryck Klimala staked a claim to a first team shirt. It will be interesting how Griffiths reacts to both threats to his position at Celtic Park.
Griffiths has been here before and come out fighting. It’s fair to say he’ll back his own ability to score goals. It’s now down to whether he can add the commitment and drive to get himself in a physical condition to force himself back into Lenny’s plans. It may be wise to add a Twitter sabbatical to the gameplan.
Patryck Klimala is staking a claim, yet you wouldn’t put it past Celtic’s maverick to return to his best. Griffiths has had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. As Old Blue Eyes said maybe ‘the best is yet to come.’ It will now be down to Leigh Griffiths to show just that. You wouldn’t put in past him.
Niall J
