LEIGH GRIFFITHS’ Celtic future will be settled today with it looking increasingly likely his contract will not be renewed, as CQN reported yesterday.
So far there has been silence from the club and the striker, but a decision will have to be made today with the former Scotland international’s deal coming to an end.
One-time Hoops hitman Chris Sutton is among the many who has been left frustrated with the ongoing saga concerning the forward who claimed a miserly seven goals last time out while failing to play a full 90 minutes in any game.
Griffiths, who will be 31 next month, started only eight matches in his 26 appearances and was slammed by ex-boss Neil Lennon over fitness issues even before the kick-off to a crucial campaign in the club’s history that saw their bid for a tenth successive title fall apart shortly after the turn of the year.
Sutton, speaking in the Daily Record Podcast, said: “Leigh Griffiths is posting pictures on Instagram. I’m back in training, I’m getting fit. Well let’s see.
“The Griffiths debate is getting tiresome.
“Scotland at the Euros, Griffiths should’ve been picked? No he shouldn’t because he wasn’t at the required fitness level, hasn’t been all season.”
The media pundit added: “Everything about Leigh is going to be attitude, attitude, attitude. Fitness levels. Is he going to be fit enough to play 90 minutes for three times a week?
“If he’s not, then I’m afraid that’s unacceptable. He isn’t 40. He’s let his standards drop.
“There may be reasons for that, but the frustration is that he’s so, so talented.
“You don’t lose that finishing ability. Some of the goals he scored and he’s a quarter fit are eye opening. The one at Aberdeen. That lovely, low backlift, that sharpness of thought, the way he moves in the box at times is instinct.
“It’s all there, but the fitness levels aren’t. He’s going to be a real dilemma for the manager coming in and what he’s going to do.
“I bet at the moment Ange Postecoglou is thinking: I can’t trust him.”
The mystery of Griffiths’ future will be solved at some stage today with his seven-year reign at Parkhead on the brink of being extinguished.
He has scored only 25 goals over the past three seasons and that fact alone could see him move on.
All will be revealed!
