A LOT of people are quick to criticise Leigh Griffiths and there are perhaps occasions when it’s completely justified.
Should he have lobbed the tape at a Kilmarnock fan the other night? Of course not. It was daft. But no one is going to end up in A&E after getting hit by a bit of paper.
Everyone does daft things sometimes – but if anything Griffiths also deserves to be commended. This is a player who could have been lost to the game completely. Instead he is back in the Celtic side and scoring goals again.
Griffiths still has a long way to go until he’s back to being the player he was a few seasons ago but it’s an impressive start.
Everyone knows why Griffiths has not been involved much over the last 12-18 months. It took a lot of bravery for him to come out last summer and lay it bare just what he’d been going through.
It takes a lot of courage for such a high-profile figure to go public and be open about his issues. It may give others in other walks of life the confidence to talk about issues.
It’s vital for sufferers of mental health problems to feel they can disuss it. We should be supporting Griffiths, not using an extremely difficult period for him and his family in his life as a tool to hit him with when it suits an argument.
Don’t forget, he’s also missed matches as he’s just not been picked. In the last three years Celtic have had a £20million striker in Moussa Dembele playing the lone striker role, and more recently he’s had £9m Odsonne Edouard, who could go on to be a £20m-plus player.
Celtic haven’t played with two up all that often so there were times when Griffiths was going to miss out.
In fairness to him he had a really good battle with Dembele for a while when the pair were both fit. There have been issues as well so it’s harsh in the extreme to use that against him. Mental health is a serious issue and isn’t something to be thrown around flippantly.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when Griffiths has been spiky, angry and made mistakes. But there have also been occasions when he has been a bit of a lost boy with an air of vulnerability.
It can’t be ignored and should be taken in to account.
A lot of people had doubts we’d ever see Griffiths back on the pitch again, let alone back scoring goals.
But he has not returned to the Celtic team out of the goodness of Neil Lennon’s heart. Griffiths is there because his manager has seen something he’s liked in recent weeks and believes he can do a job for his team.
He’s proved Lennon right this week. There were promising signs in his partnership with Edouard and when you add Patryk Klimala in to the mix, Lennon now has options when it comes to selection and formation.
Despite all that, you can’t excuse Griffiths for his actions at Rugby Park. Let’s not go overboard, when it comes to offences, chucking a bit of tape at a fan is hardly Eric Cantona’s kung-fu kick.
But it was still wrong. How will the spineless SFA deal with it? That’s anyone’s guess.
They’ll probably wait three weeks and then tell us he was booked after the game.
It’s just another silly incident that seems to be par for the course in Scottish football this season. There’s no need for it and we can also do without clubs constantly making excuses for the actions of their players.
There’s nothing wrong with admitting it was out of line and promising not to do it again.
Perhaps we’ll get a statement saying in Leith throwing tape is just a signal the match is over. Nothing would surprise us any more.
It wasn’t just the tale of the tape though. Even the Griffiths goal celebration created headlines.
I’m fed up with players making daft signs or gestures to crowds, why can’t they just enjoy a goal, shake hands with their team-mates and get back on with the game? Every time the ball hits the net the celebration has to mean something nowadays. Just give it a rest.
That’s not letting the fans off the hook either. Griffiths shouldn’t have reacted but I know it’s difficult to ignore it when you’re getting bile from the stands. It’s not pleasant and it’s hard to be the bigger man. But that comes with the territory in football.
You have to soak it up and let it go, even when your instincts are screaming the complete opposite.
Griffiths has to try to ignore the noise from the stands and from the critics and just keep concentrating on himself. If he can keep building his fitness and scoring goals, while keeping himself away from controversy, then he’ll deserve all the praise in the world.har
Should he have lobbed the tape at a Kilmarnock fan the other night? Of course not. It was daft. But no one is going to end up in A&E after getting hit by a bit of paper.
Everyone does daft things sometimes – but if anything Griffiths also deserves to be commended. This is a player who could have been lost to the game completely. Instead he is back in the Celtic side and scoring goals again.
Griffiths still has a long way to go until he’s back to being the player he was a few seasons ago but it’s an impressive start.
Everyone knows why Griffiths has not been involved much over the last 12-18 months. It took a lot of bravery for him to come out last summer and lay it bare just what he’d been going through.
It takes a lot of courage for such a high-profile figure to go public and be open about his issues. It may give others in other walks of life the confidence to talk about issues.
It’s vital for sufferers of mental health problems to feel they can disuss it. We should be supporting Griffiths, not using an extremely difficult period for him and his family in his life as a tool to hit him with when it suits an argument.
Don’t forget, he’s also missed matches as he’s just not been picked. In the last three years Celtic have had a £20million striker in Moussa Dembele playing the lone striker role, and more recently he’s had £9m Odsonne Edouard, who could go on to be a £20m-plus player.
Celtic haven’t played with two up all that often so there were times when Griffiths was going to miss out.
In fairness to him he had a really good battle with Dembele for a while when the pair were both fit. There have been issues as well so it’s harsh in the extreme to use that against him. Mental health is a serious issue and isn’t something to be thrown around flippantly.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when Griffiths has been spiky, angry and made mistakes. But there have also been occasions when he has been a bit of a lost boy with an air of vulnerability.
It can’t be ignored and should be taken in to account.
A lot of people had doubts we’d ever see Griffiths back on the pitch again, let alone back scoring goals.
But he has not returned to the Celtic team out of the goodness of Neil Lennon’s heart. Griffiths is there because his manager has seen something he’s liked in recent weeks and believes he can do a job for his team.
He’s proved Lennon right this week. There were promising signs in his partnership with Edouard and when you add Patryk Klimala in to the mix, Lennon now has options when it comes to selection and formation.
Despite all that, you can’t excuse Griffiths for his actions at Rugby Park. Let’s not go overboard, when it comes to offences, chucking a bit of tape at a fan is hardly Eric Cantona’s kung-fu kick.
But it was still wrong. How will the spineless SFA deal with it? That’s anyone’s guess.
They’ll probably wait three weeks and then tell us he was booked after the game.
It’s just another silly incident that seems to be par for the course in Scottish football this season. There’s no need for it and we can also do without clubs constantly making excuses for the actions of their players.
There’s nothing wrong with admitting it was out of line and promising not to do it again.
Perhaps we’ll get a statement saying in Leith throwing tape is just a signal the match is over. Nothing would surprise us any more.
It wasn’t just the tale of the tape though. Even the Griffiths goal celebration created headlines.
I’m fed up with players making daft signs or gestures to crowds, why can’t they just enjoy a goal, shake hands with their team-mates and get back on with the game? Every time the ball hits the net the celebration has to mean something nowadays. Just give it a rest.
That’s not letting the fans off the hook either. Griffiths shouldn’t have reacted but I know it’s difficult to ignore it when you’re getting bile from the stands. It’s not pleasant and it’s hard to be the bigger man. But that comes with the territory in football.
You have to soak it up and let it go, even when your instincts are screaming the complete opposite.
Griffiths has to try to ignore the noise from the stands and from the critics and just keep concentrating on himself. If he can keep building his fitness and scoring goals, while keeping himself away from controversy, then he’ll deserve all the praise in the world.har
