John Hartson, the former Celtic striker, believes that Leigh Griffiths could go on to score 200 goals for the Parkhead club if he stays fit and injury free. The Scotland internationalist is just four goals shy of hitting a century for Celtic, the first player to do since Hartson himself in 2005.

“If he stays on at the club – and it certainly looks as though his heart is there – then who knows? He could go on and get 200 goals,” said the affable pundit. “He is still a relatively young guy at just 27 and he has a ton of football left in him. There is no stopping the team just now. Whatever you say, Brendan’s side are far and away from everyone else and it seems now that it will be a drive to try to get 10-in-a-row.

“For me, no matter who else might come in, Leigh will be pivotal to that. He has had a big part to play at the club and so long as he stays fit then there is no telling where he could go or the numbers he could get.”

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Big Bad John and the diminutive Griffiths might have made a fine little and large combo if they were ever paired up together in one of football’s whatifs XI. Two opposites, they have more in common than initially meets the eye.

Both arrived at Celtic Park with eyebrows raised, both found themselves with a case to answer when the ‘big games’ came calling. Both answered in kind. Both used their goalscoring stats in front of goal as a cloak to deflect any criticism of their wider game and in the coming weeks it would seem inevitable that the door will open to admit Griffiths into one of the illustrious tables within the club.

There are just 28 players who have scored 100 goals for Celtic and Hartson has insisted that it is a milestone not to be taken lightly.

“In the club’s 130-year old history there are only 28 of us who have hit the 100 mark,” said Hartson. “Whatever you think of it, that is quite something. It was huge for me when I done it in my time at the club and it will be huge for Leigh too. It really is quite a humbling experience when you see the players who have achieved it – and also the quality of other players who have been at the club and didn’t get so many.

“It really is something to go and tell your kids about. When I done it the club brought out a DVD of the goals. It is under a pile of books now gathering dust now but the actual milestone still means as much to me now as it did then. I scored 110 goals for Celtic in 201 appearances and over the course of five seasons. I missed 9 months with two back operations and I always felt that my stats of a goal every two games were pretty good. I am so proud to be on the list and I know exactly how Leigh will feel when he hits it.”

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Hartson’s bulk and sheer physicality suggested a player more suited to the national sport of his homeland and there was a perennial question mark that hung over his lack of mobility in the game. While Griffiths’ has never had those issues, there is a feeling that he has had to fight for any recognition that he has got at Celtic by pushing himself to the fore, often with the odds against him. Hartson has applauded his desire and appetite for rising to the challenge.

“I am delighted for Leigh,” he said. “I would be the first to congratulate him. I know what it meant to me and so I can imagine what it will feel like for him. There isn’t a nicer or more hardworking guy that I would want to get it.

“He has been a fantastic signing for the club. I honestly think that last season he took his game to a whole new level with the goals in big, high profile games. He has worked really hard at it and not just that, he has stuck to it too. There have been other strikers, he has had to work for his place at times but he has kept his head down and kept going. He is a great guy, a humble guy and the Celtic fans love him because he is honest, he is a worker and he gives his all. He really deserves to hit it.”

Meanwhile, Hartson has also revealed that while Hoops fans continually remind him of his celebrated goal at Anfield that put Celtic into the semi-final of the UEFA Cup and his goal in Celta Vigo that kept the club in European football beyond Christmas for the first time in 23 years, his own particular favourite moment in a Celtic shirt was a little more modest.

“I think my favourite goal that I scored for Celtic was against Falkirk,” he said. “That was my 100th goal – the third in a 3-0 win if I recall correctly – and it was just a really momentous afternoon for me.

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“I didn’t feel any pressure in the build-up to it. I knew that it would come and Leigh will be the same just now. Another of my favourites was against Rangers in the Scottish Cup. I think it was the third round and I got the winner as we put them out. Didier Agathe, I think, cut the ball back and I gambled at the back post.

“Chris [Sutton] knocked it on and I beat Stefan Klos with a left-foot shot. I really enjoyed that one. I had just signed a new contract that week with the club and I felt as though I was really enjoying my football. But the feeling of getting the 100th was special. That lives with you.”

The curtain came down abruptly for Hartson at Celtic after Gordon Strachan’s inaugural season at the club. And while there was a feeling that the time had come for the player to move on after five years at Celtic, Hartson has lamented the suddenness of the departure and the lack of opportunity to pay his own respects to the Parkhead support.

“I have no grudges against Gordon but I feel as though that whole period was a very difficult point in my life,” he said. “Divorce is never easy for anyone and I hadn’t long split up with my wife and my kids were living down south.

“But I was on holiday just before pre-season and I got a call from Gordon to say that the club had accepted an offer and a sale had been agreed for me to go to Bryan Robson at West Brom. It was just incredible how quickly everything changed.

“I had scored on the last day of the season when we drew 2-2 with Aberdeen up at Pittodrie but I had had no inkling that would be my last game for Celtic.

“I always feel a little bit of envy when I see players taking a lap of the pitch at Celtic because it would have been nice to be able to say cheerio that way, to say thank you to a pretty incredible support.

“I spent five years at the club and had arguably some of the biggest highlights of my career there. I always felt that I had a great rapport with the fans, I still do, and it was hard been told so abruptly that it was over.

“I would have loved the chance to show my appreciation to the club and to the support but it wasn’t to be. I am not bitter about it. Life goes on and there are always new heroes at any club but it always felt like I was just told that was it.”