Celtic welcomed Odsonne Edouard back into the club yesterday just as Leigh Griffiths looked to be on his way out.
The Parkhead side had an option to trigger a 12-month extension to the 30-year-old Scottish internationalist's contract which expired today.
Griffiths had been optimistic of another year at the club but made a significant social media display yesterday that strongly suggested his future lies elsewhere.
The striker was shared photographs on his Instagram account as he went through his paces in a private gym away from the club while sporting Scotland training kit rather than Celtic's while his team-mates were training at Lennoxtown.
There was also a notable, if petulant, removal of all Celtic connections from his social media channels.
Griffiths has struggled for fitness and sharpness since returning last season from lockdown overweight. Indeed, he has completed only eight full 90 minutes at club level in the past three years.
He has not been short of honours at Celtic - having bagged 14 major pieces of silverware at the club there are only 13 players in the entirety of Celtic's history who could better his haul while his tally of 123 goals means he is the only player in the last 15 years to net more than 100 goals for the club.
However, Ange Postgecoglou spoke at his opening press conference of creating a particular culture at Celtic with the Greek-Australian known to be demanding in terms of his standards regarding fitness and application.
Aberdeen and Hibs have both been credited with an interest in Griffiths who was left out of Scotland's European Championships squad by Steve Clarke.
Edouard's return is a boost for Celtic given the proximity of the Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland.
The 23-year-old was left out of the French squad last week for the Olympics while Leicester's acquisition of Patson Daka from Salzburg would suggest that a reunion with Brendan Rodgers may not be on the cards this summer, as had been previously expected.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel