‘”So Sorry”Boyata will be welcomed back,’ Celtic star

LEIGH GRIFFITHS has stated that Dedryck Boyata will be made welcome by his Celtic team-mates tomorrow. The Belgian defender will first say sorry to the players and management then will start the preparations with the rest of the squad for the Europa League match in Lithuania on Thursday.

We broke the news yesterday that Boyata would be welcomed back and followed that with the comments from the manager, Brendan Rodgers – see HERE.

David Potter’s view on all of this was posted later last night and is well worth a read if you missed it – see HERE.

Now Leigh Griffiths has spoken about the situation and has given an indication on how the Celtic players are feeling now that the events surrounding Boyata’s refusal to travel to Athens has had a few days for everyone in the squad to calm down.

“We’ll welcome Dedryck back into the group next week. The manager and everyone above us will deal with the matter internally. As players, we just focus on the job in hand.

“There will be no resentment. Odsonne missed the game on Tuesday as well and there’s no resentment there. We need to move on and forget about it.

“We’ve got a massive game on Thursday and if Dedryck comes back in we’ll welcome him back.

“I’ve never experienced anything similar but the manager has dealt with it before at the highest level.

“We just work hard every day and try to win football matches.”

Griffiths still can’t quite believe that Celtic lost to AEK Athens on Tuesday, and although he reckons that more goals could have been scored, the blame for the shock exit – which will cost the club over £30million, is down to shocking defending.

“We dominated the ball going forward and on another night we’d have scored three or four,’he said.

“But it’s about defending, and if we can’t do that properly then we don’t deserve to be in the Champions League.

“If we can’t defend simple crosses and do what we’ve done for the past two years, we don’t deserve to be there. It was two basic errors which meant we conceded two goals.

“If we defend properly we’d have been in the play-off.”

However the Celtic players’ focus must turn to the Europa League, Griffiths believes the criticism that has come their way over the past week will drive the squad on.

“The flak drives you on. If people want to doubt us it’s fine. People have doubted us for two seasons in terms of how far we could go.

“We’ve proved everyone wrong. We’ve won everything domestically and this season we’re going for the clean sweep again.”

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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