Leigh Griffiths appears to be out of favour at Scottish Premiership champions Celtic – but Newcastle United wanted him in the summer.
It took Leigh Griffiths a while to win over Brendan Rodgers in his first season as Celtic manager.
Even after winning Celtic’s Player of the Year award in 2015/16, scoring over 40 goals in the process, Rodgers told the Daily Record the following January that Griffiths needed to add more professionalism to his game in order to fulfil his potential.
At the time, Griffiths was in and out of the Celtic side and, in truth, it was only in the final few weeks of the season that the Scotland international finally started to show Rodgers just what he was capable of on a regular basis.
And despite netting 16 goals in 25 games this season, Griffiths again appears to have found himself on the wrong side of his manager. The former Wolves man has been left on the bench for Celtic’s last three fixtures with Odsonne Edouard moving ahead of him in the pecking order.
Stephen Craigan even mused in his column for BT Sport that Griffiths had been ‘banished’ to the role of third-choice striker.
So with the January window just two weeks away, Newcastle United may never have a better chance of luring the striker to St James’ Park. According to the Daily Record in July, The Magpies were hoping to bring Griffiths back to England after he caught their eye with two stunning free-kicks in Scotland’s 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw with England.
Newcastle are still in need of a striker and a creative outlet and Griffiths, as much a number ten as he is a number nine, could fill both roles.
And manager Rafa Benitez should harbour hopes that, this time, a deal could be possible with Griffiths’s Celtic future in question again.
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