Chris Sutton has recalled a stormy face off that he had with Leigh Griffiths.
In season 2015/16 the former Hibs striker scored 31 goals in 32 SPFL appearances that carried a faltering Ronny Deila side to the title.
Big changes came in the summer of 2016 with Brendan Rodgers regularly demanding that his players were 24-hour Athletes.
There were more than a few Celtic fans prepared to argue that Griffiths should be played ahead of Moussa Dembele, even two years ago there were plenty saying that Griffiths was the best natural finisher in Scotland.
In November 2020 Griffiths scored in Scotland’s penalty shoot-out win over Serbia, a month later he was on target as Celtic won the Scottish Cup against Hearts but since then it has been a steep decline- as many warned.
Picking up on the Currie Club podcast with Sutton, the Daily Record reports:
Sutton has no regrets about calling out Leigh Griffiths’ lack of fitness on one occasion – even if the former Scotland striker took massive exception to it after a match when the player spotted the pundit in the press gallery.
He smiled and said: “It was quite an interesting show of pettiness…’you come down here’, ‘no, you come up here’. That was how it started. He was really angry.
“I was critical of his physical condition. Don’t forget Leigh Griffiths was such an important player at Celtic – a brilliant natural goalscorer.
“I thought he’d let himself go and I wasn’t the only one thinking that. I said it – he took offence but I stand by what I said and I told him that.
“I get it. I played and you don’t take criticism well. Leigh’s a passionate guy. He wanted to vent his frustration and I said to him that the best way to do that was to get himself fit enough to become an asset to the team.”
After signing a 12 month contract with Celtic in July 2021 Griffiths spent the season on loan at Dundee and Falkirk.
Following a two match spell with Australian side Mandurah City he was recently reported to be training with Livingston.
No wonder Leigh Griffiths wasn’t going to take that sort of criticism form a pundit. Pure cheek!
At his peak he should have told those advisers he needed to train.