Celtic's season is effectively over for another year. Fans may not like hearing that but, in reality, there's little left to play for. They're expected to win every game from here on out and where's the fun in meeting minimum expectations?
The 2-1 defeat to Ajax at Parkhead means that Celtic only have domestic honours to think about now and plenty of fans have been letting their feelings be known regarding manager Ronny Deila. It was a difficult group for the Scottish champions but two points from five games was never going to be acceptable and when you see Kris Common's reaction after the 3-1 defeat to Molde last month, it's clear to see what European competition means to Celtic players and fans alike.
Which may be why Leigh Griffiths thought it best to deliver a rather unusual message to fans after Thursday's defeat.
I can't be more apologetic than I am right now. My performance was Simply SHOCKING and ultimately its cost us dearly. 😭😭😭
— LG9️⃣ (@Leighgriff09) November 26, 2015
Emojis and capital letters, that's how you know he really means it. But in all seriousness, Griffiths has been Celtic's leading light by quite some way this season but that didn't stop the striker from coming out after the game to give himself a good kicking in the press.
Ultimately my performance has cost the team in Europe. I’m putting that on myself because I can’t fault anyone else in the team. I thought they were outstanding. I will blame myself. If I take my chances, then it could be a different scoreline. I had three, four, five good chances. On another day, I would have scored two or three of them but tonight it has cost us dearly.
I couldn’t utter a word to my team-mates after the game. I was just so disappointed. It is not their fault. Ultimately it is down to me and my finishing.
After Drogheda United's Mick Daly came out with some wonderfully honest tweets following his side's relegation this season we'd like to say that we're fully on board with this kind of thing. It's blatantly obvious that Griffiths is not to blame for Celtic's European exit but it's a nice change from the usual tactic of hiding away from a bad performance.
