LEIGH Griffiths joined some illustrious company this week when he hit his 40th goal of the season for Celtic.

Only Kenny Dalglish, Henrik Larsson, Bobby Lennox, Joe McBride, Brian McClair, Jimmy McGrory and Charlie Nicholas have netted that many times for the Parkhead club in the past.

But Leigh's achievement has been dismissed by some because he has been playing in a league without Rangers in it.

In the past, Hoops centre forwards have had to prove their worth in Old Firm games against the Ibrox club during the course of a league campaign.

You have to be careful when you make comparisons with former players, but I think that in many ways what Griffiths has done is even more impressive than his predecessors.

While the calibre of opposition he has been playing against hasn’t been as great, the quality of footballer he is playing alongside isn’t as good either. There were definitely more chances created in days gone by.

You have to take into account the fact that Leigh has played as a lone striker in the system his manager favours. A lot of centre forwards in the past have played in partnerships up front.

I think he has scored a phenomenal number of goals when you consider Ronny Deila has usually fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation.

When you look at the great Celtic strikers of the past they all played alongside somebody. Their load was shared. Leigh hasn’t had that luxury.

Griffiths has always had an eye for goal. He has scored regularly at Livingston, Dundee, Wolves and Hibs. But what he has done this season is his greatest achievement.

It will be interesting to see if Deila’s replacement plays with two strikers up front. If he does, then Griffiths could benefit from that and could conceivably score even more.

His confidence is extremely high just now. I am sure he will be looking to maintain better his tally for the 2015/16 campaign next term.

For someone who has only really come to the fore last season and this season he has definitely laid down a marker with the number of goals he has scored.

Sometimes you can over-analyse an achievement. I think we should just congratulate the boy on what he has done. Whatever happens in the future will happen. Let’s just enjoy the lad’s success.

When the team has failed to perform, he has been the catalyst for a few victories. At the end of the day, you can’t get away from the amount of goals he’s scored.

You can’t take anything away from him. To score 40 goals in a season is no mean feat no matter what team you are playing for or what league you are playing in. All you can do is compliment him.

Leigh will certainly be fresh for the new season having been left out of the Scotland squad for the friendlies with Italy in Malta later this month and France in Metz at the start of June along with a few of his Celtic team mates.

Gordon Strachan has given Scot Brown, Craig Gordon and Kieran Tierney time off and has only selected Charlie Mulgrew, who hasn’t played a lot of football this season, for the double header.

I think that is really sensible thing for the national coach to do. The Celtic players are going to be back in pre-season training in the middle of June to prepare for their Champions League qualifiers.

If they were involved in these fixtures against the Euro 2016 finalists it would entail more foreign travelling and give them far less of a break.

Gordon isn’t doing this as a favour to his former club. No, he is doing it because it is the right thing to do. It will benefit Celtic and in the long term it will also benefit Scotland in their World Cup qualifiers.

If Celtic qualify for the group stages of the Champions League their players will be playing at a higher level in Europe. That in turn should help improve their performances with Scotland in their Russia 2018 qualifying games.

The break will do Scott Brown the world of good. He hasn’t looked himself since he returned from injury earlier this year. Did he come back too soon? Was he fully fit? It isn’t sure.

It was certainly a good idea to leave him out of the last few Premiership games. The league had been won so there was no point in playing him.

Hopefully, he will come back fully refreshed and free of the sort of niggling knocks which have prevented him from performing at his best at times in recent months. He is such an important player for Celtic at his best.

Picking Charlie was also the right thing to do. He was sidelined for two lengthy spells this season. It will do him no harm whatsoever to get games.