LEIGH GRIFFITHS hopes striking sidekick Odsonne Edouard remains at Celtic for “the biggest season in the club’s history”.
The 22-year-old French ace still has two years to run on his Hoops deal, but has been subject to transfer speculation in recent months.
Griffiths hopes the lure of playing in a historic 10-in-a-row campaign with the Parkhead side will prove to be irresistible for the frontman who cost a club record £9million when he joined from Paris Saint-Germain in June 2018.
The Scotland international and the team’s talisman clicked after the turn of the year following Neil Lennon’s decision to change his system and go with two up front. They contributed 15 goals in 10 games together when paired in the starting line-up.
Both were on target in the champions’ last game of the season when Griffiths notched a hat-trick and Edouard rolled in a classy effort in the 5-0 victory over St Mirren at Parkhead on Saturday, March 7.
Now the 29-year-old comeback hitman hopes the double-act can continue to plunder goals as the team zero in on a record-equalling achievement by going into double figures in a stupendous sequence.
IT TAKES TWO…Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard celebrate another goal on the way to nine in a row.
Griffiths, speaking to the Daily Record, said: “I want him to be here, 100 per cent. I see rumours all of the time that he is being linked with massive clubs, but don’t forget that we are a massive club, as well, so we want him to stay.
“If he stays one more season and plays as well as he has done over the last 18 months, he’d be a big, big asset in us reaching the Ten in a Row.
“There is always going to be pressure at Celtic to win titles, but this one will mean a helluva lot more than some before.
“It will be talked about for a long time. If we have signings coming in, it will be drummed into them quickly that this is the biggest season in the club’s history.
“We are going for 10 and it’s up to us as players to go out and deliver. We need to be at it from the first kick off.
“It’s about what we do. If we play our best football in games, we know we will win the league.”
Griffiths added: “After January, I played well and me and Odsonne were on fire.
“It would have been interesting to see how the gaffer would have gone at Ibrox in the game that was due before the shutdown if he’d have played one up or two up.
“We’ll never know, but we’ll see when the games come around again and see what the manager is thinking.
“It’s up to the manager to decide what games we would play and what formations he would like to use.
“But I think he knows that there’s an understanding there and it’s not as if it is something that is going to be chucked together. We know how we are going to play together.
“Odsonne likes to come short and I like to go long, so we complement each other.
“It’s an interesting one and I’m sure the fans are desperate to watch it in the stands or watch on the TV when we come back to see how we can continue the partnership.”
The new season is due to kick off on August 1 with games played behind closed doors at the start.
