LEIGH GRIFFITHS has opened up about how his Celtic career came to an upsetting end back in the summer when he was booed by a section of the Celtic support.

Leigh had been handed a new one year deal by the club earlier in the summer because we were very low on numbers at the time. It was an opportunity to get this head down and work towards something this season. Within weeks, he became a distraction to the whole Celtic team and the manager when he was sent home from Celtic’s training camp in Wales.

An internal Celtic investigation and Police Scotland cleared Leigh of any wrong doing but the damage was done in the eyes of many Celtic fans.

The player was loaned out to Dundee to t away from the limelight at Celtic but failed to recapture form, getting into trouble when he kicked pyro back into the crowd during one match.

In January, Dundee and Celtic played a game of ‘we don’t want him’ which culminated in Leigh’s early real ears from his loan deal and his Hoops contract.

Speaking about the pressure put on him and the comments made about him over his career, Leigh believes people have never just let him play football.

Leigh GRIFFITHS playing in a Friendly against West Ham at Celtic Park at the beginning of the season.

Griffiths told RecordSport: “I hate the phrase ‘prove people wrong’. That’s all I seem to hear about Leigh Griffiths. Once Griffiths gets himself fit or once Griffiths gets this or that – there is way too much pressure being put on me.

“For the last seven or eight years, I have lived with pressure and I have done it with pressure.

“Now I am getting older I hear people asking where is the guy who once scored 40 goals in one season?

“Where is the guy who scored two free kicks against England?

“My reply is this: Just let me go out and play football. That’s exactly what I want. Just let me enjoy my football, which nowadays is so hard to do.”

Leigh is a talented footballer, who has had mental health challenges. Something the club and fans tried as much to help support him through. It ended in tears, literally for the former Hoops frontman.

On leaving Celtic, the striker said: “I did leave Celtic with regrets about the way it all ended. There was a story about me in the summer which was disappointing from my point of view. I spoke to people at Celtic and the other people involved in the entire investigation process.

“It was established that I hadn’t done anything wrong. That’s when I felt Celtic should have come out and said they had spoken to me and everyone else involved and that nothing had been found and I was free to continue playing and scoring for the club.

“Had they done so then that would have been it as there was nothing there.

“I was flung back into training and the new manager was absolutely unbelievable with me – I don’t have a bad word to say about Ange. I don’t have a bad word to say about anyone at Celtic.

“Ange had come in and it was his job to get the team up and running and he’s then hit with this bombshell. I had to come back and do a mini pre-season.

“Then I played against West Ham and it’s the lowest I have ever felt in football. I left that game, climbed into the car and drove back home.

“I was crying – that was the point that I knew my time was done at Celtic.

“I said it in the car home, I couldn’t do this any more. It sounds strange but I can’t be a player who is booed both home and away.

“If I was playing at home I was going to be booed by my own fans and the away fans. If I went away from home I’m booed by the home and away fans when I touch the ball.”

Leigh did become a sideshow in the end. Coming back from lockdown very unfit was the final straw for Neil Lennon when it came to Leigh’s commitment.

His 40 goal season was something to behold, but he was always held to that standard and never quite rose to match it.

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