A lot has been said of Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad announcement, from David Turnbull’s exclusion to Leigh Griffiths not making the cut, and as the dust settles on this particular issue, ex Celtic striker, John Hartson, had a strange take on why Hoops striker, Griffiths, was left out in the cold by Scotland manager, Steve Clarke.
Speaking on The Go Radio Football Show (cited by The Daily Record), Hartson seems to suggest that Celtic are at fault for not only the striker not making the Scotland cut, but also for his lack of opportunities at club level, “Leigh’s still so deadly in front of goal – but Celtic haven’t been playing him. They haven’t given him the opportunities. They’ve seen he’s not quite there in training, maybe his body fat is a little bit over. Maybe the sports science department are saying he can’t get around the pitch like he used to.
Steve Clarke as new Celtic gaffer?
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“But I wasn’t always at my fittest. I always carried a little but extra, but Martin O’Neill played me and played me. He knew when that ball came in I’d be in amongst the six-yard box, I’d be putting my head in and scoring goals. Griffiths is the same. We’re not all the same body types and shapes, and for me, I would’ve been playing Griffiths.
“His confidence is shot and that’s maybe one of the reasons why Steve Clarke is not including him in the squad. He’s not been playing, he’s not been featuring. He’s a boy that wants to create headlines, wants to be scoring goals, wants to be the one that everybody’s talking about. But no-one’s really talking about him.”
Is Hartson choosing to forget about Griffiths returning from lock down unfit and overweight? Or the fact he held a party breaching COVID guidelines at the time or the fact he is STILL unfit and we are almost at the tail end of this disastrous season? Griffiths has no one to blame but himself for the situation he finds himself in at Parkhead.
The club have time and again stood by him and supported him through his troubles and apologists like Hartson should be calling it out instead of trying to make headlines where there are none!
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