Former Scotland international James McFadden appeared on a recent edition of the BBC’s Sportsound Scottish Football podcast to discuss the latest goings-on in Scottish football and the ex-forward spent some time discussing Leigh Griffiths and his Celtic future during the show.
Griffiths did not travel with Celtic for their pre-season trip to France, as the striker allegedly failed to meet the required level of fitness upon returning from lockdown, as per The Scottish Sun.
As reported by the Daily Record, The Hoops’ manager Neil Lennon has criticised the attacker. Lennon stated that he is “not happy” with the £1.44m-rated man and went on to say that the rest of the team “deserve better.” The manager also said that Griffiths “needs to get his head down and get fit because that’s what [Celtic] pay him for.”
Following Lennon’s recent criticism of Griffiths, McFadden shared some criticism for the attacker during a recent edition of Sportsound.
McFadden said: “There’s no excuse for Leigh Griffiths to come back unfit or overweight because the club is there for him to look after his diet, his training.”
The former Scotland international went on to share some concern over Griffiths’ Celtic future during this podcast appearance, saying: “He’s let the manager down, he’s let himself down, and he is fighting for his future now.
“Just before he came back into the team last season, there was a lot made that he was fighting for his future and Neil Lennon stuck by him, got him back playing sensationally. He’s going to have to do it again but is he going to get the chance to do it again? I don’t know.”
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Considering that the club deemed Griffiths to be too unfit to participate in their pre-season trip to France, it may be understandable why Lennon and now McFadden have been sharing criticism for the Hoops attacker.
After missing this pre-season trip, Griffiths might now be behind his teammates when the Scottish Premiership season starts in August and it may be reasonable to say that the Hoops will be weaker without a fully fit Griffiths, who was Celtic’s joint-fourth-highest league goalscorer last season than they would be with a fully fit Griffiths in their squad.