FROM toerag to talisman. If Leigh Griffiths ever gets around to writing an autobiography then that’s not a bad working title.
He wasn’t so much drinking in the last chance saloon as a Celtic player not long ago. He was singing songs about Rudi Skacel being a “******* refugee” in the aforementioned bar of final opportunities with a group of folk he should have been nowhere near.
Back then, if you asked anyone in Scottish football about Leigh Griffiths, they would say the same thing. That the lad was a player, he could even be a great one, but those broken milk bottles rattling about inside his head were letting him down.
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The evidence was pretty conclusive. His charge sheet was almost as long as his goalscoring record with Livingston, Dundee and Hibernian. Like so many Scots before him, and what a national trait to have, Griffiths hung out with the wrong crowd in the wrong places and therefore did the wrong things.
And always, always got caught.
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Is it any wonder many Celtic supporters wondered what Neil Lennon was thinking about when he signed this one-man front page story? How absolutely wrong the doubters were.
Griffiths, for my money, is the best striker to play for the club over a length of time since John Hartson hung up his boots ten years ago. Since then Gary Hooper was terrific, Scott McDonald a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals, while Giorgos Samaras, bless him, was capable of the extraordinary every so often.
Griffiths is better than all of them. He is without question the most natural scorer of goals since Henrik Larsson was around and while the Swede, a genuine world class footballer, may well be on another level, the one inhabited by Celtic’s No.9 is pretty impressive.
He scores from 25 yards and from tap-ins. He creates goals, as he did at Tynecastle, is fast, strong and all of a sudden superb in the air. Where has he found that extra bounce?
The 25-year-old was immense on Wednesday night against Hapoel Be’er Sheva. A close to perfect performance on a night of carnage at Celtic Park. An exquisite turn and pass led to the first, a brilliant header and even better free-kick, which he won, brought up his 71st and 72nd goals for Celtic.
And then just when his team needed it, as the game seemed to be drifting away, it was a fine delivery from a Griffiths corner which found Moussa Dembele who in turn found the back of the net to make it 4-2.
As a journalist, Griffiths is a hard man not to take to. He is honest and open, answers every question, and is a lot brighter than folk might think. As a striker, this guy is a class act. Celtic have needed a hero for a few years and Griffiths fits the bill.
He does things his own way, just like his fellow east coaster Scott Brown, never a man to forever keep on the straight and narrow or live by other peoples’ rules, who it could be argued had his best game for Celtic in the 5-2 win.
His performance in the centre of the chaos was magnificent. He won tackles, beat men for pace, his passing was accurate, both long and short, there was skill, a great drag-back to beat his man sticks in the mind, a touch of snarling and a crucial goal near the end which should take Celtic through the group stages.
It was Brown’s first in the Champions League.
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The captain is fit at last. Not only that, but Brendan Rodgers has him playing a role that suits Brown down to the ground. I can’t remember the last time I saw this player having so much fun on a football pitch.
This Celtic team isn’t perfect and nobody is claiming that. However, with Griffiths and Brown in this form, ably supported by their team-mates - including Kolo Toure who has been immense – this could be a season to remember.
Griffiths is seven away from 200 career goals. Brown has now clocked up over 500 appearances at club level. There is plenty more to come from both of them. It’s going to be interesting to watch.
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