Leigh Griffiths has admitted that he hasn’t helped himself with silly stuff off the field.
Even by his own standards that is an understatement for the events of the last three months, mainly involving social media.
When he looks back on his playing days at some stage he will realise that his use of social media has been detrimental to his career.
Last June Griffiths returned badly out of shape from Lockdown, after being left out of Celtic’s pre-season training and matches he turned to social media to boast that he’d return better and stronger than ever to silence his critics.
True he did pop in a few goals, scoring in Scotland’s shoot-out win over Serbia and in the Scottish Cup Final but his conditioning meant that he never played a full 90 minutes.
In June he watched Kevin Nisbet, Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams playing for Scotland at the European Championships.
Social media pictures of his solo training sessions earned a reprieve with a 12 month Celtic contract, within a week of signing that deal he was sent home from the training camp in Wales with Police Scotland and his employer launching investigations.
Reflecting on some of that Griffiths told The Sun:
It’s the silly stuff off the field. But I’m signed here now and looking forward to getting going. People say I come with a lot of baggage and they are probably right.
I don’t want that to be the sole focus. I want people, especially James and the club here, to look at what I do on the training pitch and in games.
I think my career should be judged on that. Yes, I don’t help myself at times but I try to look at the positives and make sure that when it comes to game day and training day, I am fully focused and ready to go.
The talking stops next Saturday when Dundee face Livingston looking for their first SPFL Premiership win of the season.