Announcement Highlights Major Ongoing Celtic Issue

JOHN HARTSON believes Celtic not playing Leigh Griffiths has cost him a place for his country in the upcoming fixtures and perhaps the Euro’s. Steve Clarke Announced his squad without the Celtic striker in sight.

Leigh was part of the squad that made history, scoring a penalty that helped send the country to its first major tournament in over twenty years.

Griffiths came out of lockdown to join the Celtic team last year in terrible shape – so much so – he was left out of Celtic’s pre-season tour of France.

He clawed his way back into the team but couldn’t keep his place and the striker appeared to be at odds with former Celtic manager, Neil Lennon.

He’s hardly been given a game in recent times and has seen little game time in Kennedy’s first two matches in charge.

Hartson believes Leigh not getting into the Scotland squad is a blow for the Tartan army:

“The one name I would maybe throw in is Leigh Griffiths,” Hartson told the Go Radio Football show when assessing Scotland’s striking options.” Hartson told Go Radio, cited by RecordSport.

“Is he the type of player that, if you’re a goal down with 10/15 minutes to go, you throw him on?

“He’s not really (getting game time at Celtic) but he has performed before.

“He’s had a poor year. Personally I would have played him at Celtic, I think they’ve missed his goals.

“He’s not at his fittest but if you want him to score goals, you’ve got to play him every game. I would have done that.”

To be honest, it’s criminal the striker hasn’t been fully fit all season. Like many of the Celtic squad, they’ve seemed off the pace and the drop off in performances during the last 30 minutes of games is alarming.

There’s no excuse for professional footballers not being fit. It’s something which must be addressed in the summer.

Ultimately, Leigh has nobody to blame but himself.