Leigh Griffiths. Leigh bloody Griffiths.
Thats the name that has divided the Celtic support over the last day or so.
Neil Lennon has made a bid, reported to be around £400,000, and not surprisingly, Wolves have knocked it back.
Negotiations are “ongoing ” and Lennon is not giving up on the former Hibernian loanee.
“He’s a good player and I was very impressed with him last year,” he said. “Whenever we played Hibs you were always looking at him as a threat.”
Well, Scott Brown was, but he stares at everyone. It apparently puts them off.
Probably more effective before he scores, though , Scott. Just a thought.
“His goal tally is impressive. Even though he’s not playing at the minute he’s still Wolves’ leading scorer.
“Leigh is only 23 so he’s the right age for us. That gives us a lot of scope. He’s maybe not up to Champions League standard yet but it’s up to us to turn him into that.
“Nor was Gary Hooper and nor was Scott McDonald when they first came here but what they do is they get the confidence from playing for Celtic and scoring goals and, when the elevation to the Champions League comes, they believe they can play at that level.”
Griffiths scored 28-or 31-goals while at a struggling Hibs side, they got to two Cup finals, and its fair to say they weren’t a good side. Its also fair to say that without Griffiths this year they have struggled to score goals.
Griffiths won the Scottish Football Writers Player of the Year, despite Lennon moaning that none of the nominees for that award would have got into his team. It seems he has changed his mind.
Griffiths scores goals-he’s currently top scorer at Wolves even though he is no longer a first pick. Celtic do not have-Kris Commons apart-a recognised goalscorer. We don’t buy recognised goalscorers. Chris Sutton and John Hartson apart, forwards make their name at Celtic. Even Henrik Larsson would say later that he made his name at Celtic.
Leigh Griffiths may not be the one that we want, but perhaps he is the one that we need. At 23, he has a lot to learn about being a footballer, but it seems he already knows how to be a goalscorer.
Give him a chance.
Lennon also spoke of the baggage that comes with Griffiths-presumably not hair products-and insists that he can live with and deal with that;
“He has matured into a very good player. I know he has baggage off the field but we all did. You can manage that. If he comes then he is here for the football and not the controversy.”
“I think he would jump at the chance of coming to play here. We are in talks. We have made a bid for him. There is serious interest.
“But you are never confident. Wolves are tough negotiators. We have known that from when we tried to get Kevin Doyle last year.
“So I would not say I’m confident but I am hopeful.”
“It could go until Friday but we may not wait that long. We may have options to look at.
“Preferably we would like to get a definitive answer in the next couple of days. I don’t know how far apart the two clubs are. That’s the difficulty – we have not been given a price. There will have to be a cut-off point at some stage.”
It does look like all that has to be agreed is the fee. The baggage is irrelevant, to prove this we asked a section of the Celtic support to remain in the concourse at half time recently if they had -no matter how trivial-ever had a wee bit of bother with the police. Those completely clean went back to their seats;
Its not the biggest problem in the world, is it ?
Give him a chance, as I said above, he might not be who we want, but theres every chance he’ll turn out to be what we need.
Though if this was him, I might reconsider..
The Shropshire star reckons a replacement for Griffiths is already lined up in Leon clarke, so it won’t be long before we get our man…
While Griffiths has proved himself at the top level in Scotland, eyebrows were raised at another little rumour that has broken into other forums. We heard this a while ago from our usual drunken source, but decided to ignore it as even we have to draw the line somewhere.
Down in the second division, or league one or whatever its called this week, Second Rangers are desperate for cash, and with their jewel in the crown Lee Wallace earning more than the club can afford to pay-actually all the players at Ibrox are on more than the club can afford to pay- there was talk of a sneaky bid right at the end of the window to provide cover for Emilio Izzaguerre at left back. Eyebrows raised ? Well, obviously. Wallace can play at the level he’s at, but how would he cope against full time players every week ? How would he cope with the pressure of playing for a big club, in front of big crowds , in major tournaments ?
There are doubts, and perhaps on reflection, a move for Aaron Taylor Sinclair at Partick would be a better bet, as he has more big game experience.
And anyway, why should we give that club any money ? They’d only waste it.
Dorin Ratiriu is another name on everyones lips. The eighteen year old Dinamo Bucharest winger was also the subject of a Celtic bid, but if the offer for Griffiths of £400,000 is a guideline, it would probably have cost more to cash the cheque than was on it.
There are more players currently being considered, according to Neil Lennon, and there may yet be a few surprises;
“We are hoping to get some things done over the next couple of days,” he said. “It would be beneficial as they would have four or five months to get accustomed to the way we play, the surroundings and environment and going into the Champions League qualifiers having had that experience behind them.
“It´s the ideal scenario but we might not get that, and if we can´t finalise the business we want in January then we will look again in the summer like we do in every window.”
We do seem to spend a lot of time looking in windows, perhaps we should actually go into the shop now and again.
The Celtic Trust has published a report and summary of their meeting last week;
Report from Open Meeting 22 1 14
Theres a lot there, and the most important thing is that supporters can now air their views, and if a problem is there, the club can now be approached and asked to deal with it. Maybe its the first step in building bridges and getting the fans and the board a bit closer to each other, and to each others issues.
From the report;
- A further meeting would be held in two weeks’ time on Wednesday 5th February the business of which will be to receive the responses from Peter Lawwell and in the light of those to decide on any further action.
Seems reasonable enough, the points listed in the report seem reasonable enough, we await with interest the reply.
There do seem to be a lot of complaints from supporters in that report, and if they are viable, then the club has a bit of work to do. It seems a start could be made by gathering evidence of these complaints and presenting it to the club, thus trying to deal with the problem rather than allowing it to fester.
Its always better to talk to each other, rather than about each other.
Anyway, its a start, and the least the club could do is respond.
We had a picture of Stephane Bonnes yesterday, which some of you may have remembered from the side of milk cartons as the search for his whereabouts during his time at Celtic intensified.
Heres another of the same ilk-who is he ?
Finally , congratulations o Ringo Starr for his life time achievement award at the grammys the other night. Unfortunately, one of his fellow stars -who some cruelly credit his success with, couldn’t be with him on stage, as there was no room for a big steam loco with a smiley face painted on..
Finally final, a few of you have been asking if the rumour mill is out this week. well, you wouldn’t believe us if we told you…
Fernando Ornalaes
Fernando de Ornelas
griffiths as about as welcome as darren jackson all the promises and yet again were let down,this will not bring back the crowds
Griffiths, as you say maybe what we need, goalscorer, not afraid of a challenge, defo gets stuck in, terrorises defences, that’s what we need
£400k? ffs,nae wonder we never buy anyone if that’s the kind of money we bid,Ebeneezer Lawwell wants to get a grip.
I like the sound of Griffiths more and more. He ticks the boxes. Same price thereabouts as Larsson or Moravcik. He’s a thick, ugly and quite repellant individual just like most of the poaching b***ards I’ve known over the years. Get him in.
I heard Griffiths was seen ‘ thumbing ‘ a lift up to CP.
So we have to wait until the summer for our 6M target man.
More a case of wait until there are season tickets to sell. I
hope this strategy doesn’t backfire,and he is, not in for CL qualifiers, and….
As for Griffiths,he is a proven goalscorer up here.Who is
scoring our goals at present ?
I am sure Commons would welcome him.He would score 20+
goals in the league,so it’s a no brainer.
PS. re pensionerbhoy,no hard feelings.Trust in Lenny more,I know Neil, and he has great passion for our club,however
sometimes his hands are tied !!
holy sea
No problem. I just did not want us going down the road of some other sites where debate turned to abuse.
Can I start by saying, I do not have the slightest doubt about Lenny’s commitment. That has never been in question. Nor, knowing a little of what has always gone on behind the scenes at Celtic Park, do I doubt his hands are often tied when it comes to getting his way (I am sure this is especially true when he has to answer publicaly for events off the field). However, even the greatest managers, including Big Jock himself, were not above criticism and 60,000 at a game will give you 100,000 different opinions. I just have an opinion, among other things, on the youth, the cross field style of play he adopts a bit too often and what appears to be the regular selection of favourites. He is not the first at Parkhead to fall into that trap. Finally, no one wants to see Lenny have great success more than me, especially when that would have dire consequences elsewhere, but I still feel I am entitled to speak out when I think he has got it wrong. On the other hand, it most certainly does not qualify me for a management role, I can assure you. I might manage selling “pies” and “coke”, but I am afraid I am not into fleecing. What I do expect is a barrage of arguments disagreeing with my opinions from other dedicated fans like yourself. And as long as we can debate with respect, you never need to apologise. Hey, I am not worth the effort.
Can we end with a big website hug – a group one to keep this the top class site it is and, much more importantly, for the sake of unity among our support?
H H
Pensionerbhoy,
Sometimes if you know the facts,it makes the critism hard to
take.I am all for constructive critisism,being the basis for any
debate or arguement.
To give you an insight into Neil’s motivational skills, players
who won the league in 2008, attribute his presence as a coach, as a major factor.Especially, the 2 games against the
deid club.He fired up Naka to score that wonder goal.
To finish ( before I get into trouble ), when Neil writes about
his time at Celtic, it will be an international best-seller !!
God Bless.
Holy Sea
Thanks for that. I know we jump the gun sometimes but we can only read it as we see it. I look forward to Neil’s biography but dread reading the horror stories he experienced.
And God Bless to you too.
H H
£400k is more than enough, another crap striker to add to the ever growing list of crap strikers. Which will leave commons with the main goal scoring duties for the rest of the season.
Quality rather than quantity … FFS
Rats, I knew bonnes yesterday but had no time to reply, I dont have a scoobie about this guy!
If Griffiths does come I agree it wont ignite demand for season books, but there is no reason why he cant be a success – although with his twitter comments and general ugliness he does look more suited to our erstwhile glasgow rivals. I m not conviced paying £6m on some one is more of a guarantee any more in the transfer market. Our “big money/ name” players have often been mince – Wright,Berkovic, Juninho, Camara, Kamara while the smaller price tag bhoys some times do better – Scott Mc Donald, Hooper, Pearson, Hannah etc etc, so get Griffiths in and if it doesnt work no major financial drain, rather than say a Berkovic who sat about for a good year on a hefty wedge but contributing nothing. And why not get Stevie May in too – young, banging in goals, all the reports from his manager etc is that he has a great attitude and desire to get better- who do you think will score more goals between now and the end of the season- Stokes or May?
Ralph
“Its always better to talk to each other, rather than about each other.”
Not a bad wee motto for a website either.
My thanks to Marie P for her kind words yesterday. I will certainly be continuing to express my opinions and write for fun but I have decided it really is time at my age to stop sticking my tongue out at others. Ralph’s words above really struck home.
Having said that here I go again, creating. What in the name of all that is holy is the club up to? £400,000.00 for an alien destroyer, money for the Mob and full of eastern promises – “Dorin Ratiriu is another name on everyones lips”. I doubt it Ralph. Like me there are probably several fans who cannot even pronounce it. Yes, it makes for a fine selection box, like the one’s where you have no idea if the chocolate is covering something nice or disgusting – and there is certainly one among them that is suspiciously like the coffee cream wrapped in blue. I still maintain that some of our youngsters should be blooded and show some justification for Lennoxtown. Given Neil’s statement he can cope with Mr. Griffiths’ off field excursions into lawlessness, I feel my point about Tony Watt is quite valid too. Why could he not do the same with him? What I will concede is, given our blatant need for a goal score, perhaps Lenny is on the ball with Griffiths. His lack of a lot on or in the top should count for nothing if he can knock them in each week. My only reservation is paying too much for him and the niggling fact I was never impressed by him at Hibs. But I guess it is hard to argue against his record up till now. As for Wolves, they can be as hard negotiators as they like but a player is only worth what he is worth.
Time to bite that old tongue methinks. I hope there will be some fine debate without the antagonism. As Run Sammy Run commented yesterday, “hope we don’t go the way of some of those other sites, that would be very sad indeed.” Very sad indeed.
I confess I have never heard of the guy in the photo. I may have been out of the country at the time and I know there are those wishing I had not returned.
Good old Ringo. At least he never took himself as seriously as some Coleoptera, especially those that used their “wings” to try some high flying. That probably helped “drum” up some votes for the “fourth man”.
H H
TIME FOR THE BHIG BHOYCOTT V HEARTS & ST JOHNSTONE FECK THE S.P.F.L.,S.F.A. AND THE CELTIC BOARD,YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE,C’MON BHOY STAY AWAY FAE THESE TWA’ MATCHES
Don’t have clue who it is today, I got yesterdays so at this rate i’ll get another one right in 2020 (by which time we’ll be playing rangers mark VI).
As for Griffiths, he may not be the £6M superman type striker we want but the guy will score goals, more than the strikers we have now. Would folk consider it a good bit of business if we swapped him for Stokes, Sammi or another mis-firing striker?
Get these £6-7 million players in we have no chance none at all if there worth that amount the English prem mob step in offer crazy money to them and we are cast aside.
How many fans moaned about McDonald, hooper and even a certain Swedish number 7 and there is plenty more, we have already had a knock back last week so those players are hoping to get a move to one of the big leagues.
It’s about time some celtic supporters get a reality check and come into the real world every time we spend £2-3 million on a player there gonna do this and that and when they flop it’s abuse time, should never have got him after heaping praise on the guy 6 months before.
Get guys in that 1st you know they can score in the league that they are coming to and everything else is a bonus, I would like to see griffiths & may come in cause you know they can score goals.
Oh and elfranco gonna start by boycotting this web site have you ever been at a game or are you not allowed out.
Had that Griffiths guy in the back of my taxi once. Shit.
HH
If we sign Griffiths fair enough he might just average the 25 a season a Good Celtic finisher should?
Canny see Stokes Pukki or Balde managing that so I can see Lennys reasoning for going in for him.
My main hope is Big Fridjonnson hit’s the ground running and adds the ariel threat we need in the box as we waste far too many set pieces at Celtic.