Coyle reveals he came close to signing Leigh Griffiths

Owen Coyle has revealed just how close he came to signing Leigh Griffiths during his time at Houston Dynamo.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast, Coyle explained that he wanted to take the player to America when Ronny Deila was in charge of the Hoops.

Struggling to get in the team under Deila, Griffiths was heavily linked with moves away from the club, with Coyle’s Houston side particularly keen on signing the player.

I’ve always been an admirer – I think he’s a very, very talented player. There’s no doubt about that. As a matter of fact, I was very close to taking him. He was out of the team under Ronny Deila and I was close to bringing him to Houston.

I went to a game, he came on as a sub, scored one and made the other one in the second half. And then he just carried on playing every week. From a chance of getting him to America…we never.

Any potential deal fell through following Griffiths return to the side and the striker has never looked back since.

Griffiths has found regular game time hard to come by, competing with both Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard in recent years, but with the former leaving for Marseille, the Hoops man is playing an increased role this season.