RAGING Neil Lennon has let rip at Leigh Griffiths in an astonishing verbal assault.
The Celtic manager watched Patryk Klimala score his first goal for the club in the 1-1 draw with Nice in Lyon last night in the opening match of the Hoops’ three pre-season games in France.
Then Lennon launched an attack on his “overweight” Scotland international who was left at Lennoxtown to train on his own while his team-mates prepared across the channel, as CQN reported earlier this week.
A fuming Parkhead gaffer didn’t hold back as he insisted the 29-year-old frontman had let down his colleagues and it’s clear the fans’ favourite’s career is at the crossroads at the champions..
Lennon, speaking to the Daily Record, 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.”
Lennon commented: “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.”
The Hoops boss added ominously: “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.”
Celtic will now play hosts Lyon tomorrow night before moving to the French capital for an encounter with Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
