PETER GRANT has told RecordSport he finally caught up with Michael Stewart after he claimed the Scotland coaches were part of a dressing room bust-up with Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths after an international game.

Grant, now the Alloa boss was Alex McLeish’s Scotland assistant at the time and when news got out that Grant and others had hammered Leigh in-particular. Grant told Record Sport he wasn’t happy with the accusation with Stewart replying.

“I think I said it to Michael. I’d never say it by text or phone. I wanted to say it face to face and I was fortunate enough to see him a couple of weeks ago. It was a total lie and I was always led to believe if you are not 100 per cent sure, don’t go with what someone else has said, always check before you say anything.

“I said to Michael and that was it, the end for me because it was a complete and utter lie. It wasn’t the fact that he said it, it was the fact that everybody wrote it afterwards.”
“(Michael said Leigh Griffiths) had been slaughtered by the staff, that was the words that were used I think.”

McLeish and Grant’s ill-fated time in Scotland came to an end after a string of horrible results, paving the way for Steve Clarke to come in.

Michael Stewart recalls the night in question when Grant pulled him up about pointing fingers in the media and the former Hearts man said he didn’t rise to it at the time.

“Peter brought it up at a Ladbrokes event. I didn’t respond due to the fact that he brought it up in front of other people so I appreciate he didn’t do it over the phone or a text, but to bring it up in front of some other people who had absolutely no idea what the conversation was about, I decided not to get involved.

“There’s a big difference between telling lies and I’m quite interested to hear him there say you shouldn’t say something unless you are 100 percent sure, I’m not a journalist and would never claim to be a journalist but in the journalistic handbook, if you hear something from two independent sources that is confirmation of a story and that is what happened.
“I heard days after that something had happened in the changing room, that Leigh Griffiths had been slaughtered. I then thought nothing of it.
“Then three weeks later when there was talk of Griffiths not wanting to be in the squad, I was talking to somebody else and they told me again that something happened in the changing room.”

It’s handbags at dawn by the sounds of things more than anything else. Grant obviously frustrated about how his time at Scotland had gone.

The former Celtic star was fighting his corner but if there’s no smoke without fire, who had been feeding this information to Stewart in the first place?

Scotland got a win against Cyprus at the weekend and have a home tie against Kazakhstan this week before the final international break of the year comes to an end.

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. Respect Stewart’s point of view but hope like many that our players stick to Celtic and give Scotland a miss, especially when you hear these things.

  2. Mcleish spoke of Griff’s “issues” at the time. Whether dressing room conflicts arose is another matter. If Griff was “slaughtered” in the dr then the management should be questioned. Griff was going through a tough time and something happened at that time. All we as Celtic supporters want is for Griff to come back as strong and fit (in all ways) to the squad. We support you Leigh. We all go through low times. HH

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