Neil Lennon has responded to Leigh Griffiths remarks yesterday when the striker outlined his take on what happened at Celtic last season and declared that he was fit as he was able to sit on the bench. He argued that he’d got into the team for a run of games over the winter and after a poor 45 minutes in the home defeat to St Mirren he was made the scapegoat by the then Celtic manager.
Griffiths also revealed telephone talks with Ange Postecoglou and revealed that the pair plan to meet to look at a putting together a deal that will keep the striker at Celtic for the new season. The striker is out of contract over the next few days and while Celtic have an option to extend that by a further year, they may be looking at an alternative with a different payment agreement included.
The BBC Scotland Euros Breakfast show had Lennon in this morning obviously keen to keep this very public row going on and the former Celtic manager was perhaps more candid than before in response to what Griffiths had to say yesterday.
🗣️’He’s on full pay for the three months of lockdown and comes back totally out of condition’
Neil Lennon on Leigh Griffiths 👇
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“He did let himself down. He’s on full pay for the three months of lockdown and comes back totally out of condition and a stone overweight. He couldn’t afford to be because he hadn’t played much football in the previous 18 months to two years.
“We’ve worked really hard with him to get him back on track. Before lockdown he was in the team, he was scoring goals and doing absolutely fine and then he comes back completely out of condition. Way, way behind any of the rest of them. For me that was totally unacceptable.
“He’s trying to make out that it’s alright but it’s not. He’s saving he’ll prove people wrong but he hasn’t proved anybody wrong. He’s not at the level of being a Champions League player, he didn’t get picked for Scotland. You have to ask why.
“He’ll say he didn’t play enough games but towards the end of the season I wasn’t there and John (Kennedy) obviously felt that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind or condition to play for Celtic which is a very high standard. I don’t think Leigh got anywhere near those standards over the last year or so.”
Photo: Jeff Holmes
Tom English then asked Lennon if he reckons Griffiths has it within him to salvage his career at Celtic. Lennon’s reply: “It depends where you are aiming your career at. To play at the top level, European level, he’s got a lot to do. Even if he is in decent condition he hasn’t got the pace anymore. He needs to be slimline, he needs to be sharp, that’s his game.
“The bottom line is if I’d had a fit and hungry Leigh Griffiths he would have played, because I signed him and I brought him back into the team when under Brendan (Rodgers) he was nowhere near it.
“We worked incredibly hard with him and he let me and everyone down. There’s the deflection as well. You shouldn’t talk about other players, you should only talk about yourself.”
What Ange Postecoglou is going to make of all this is going to be the key factor. Had Griffiths any sense at all he’d have been well advised to have avoided this very public tit-for-tat argument on the BBC in the days running up to the Australian manager deciding alongside Dom McKay what they are going to do about Leigh Griffiths.
