John Hughes is returning to his spiritual home after Hibernian confirmed yesterday that their former captain will succeed Mixu Paatelainen as manager. The 44-year-old is quitting Falkirk to fulfil a long-held ambition to take charge at Easter Road.
The Edinburgh club have given Hughes a three-year contract and he will be paraded at a press conference tomorrow. The move takes Hughes out of the running to fill the managerial vacancy at Swansea City, for whom he also played, but once Hibernian made it clear to him that he was their first choice, there was an emotional pull that was too strong for any other suitor to overcome.
Hughes was a childhood Hibernian supporter and grew up in Leith, just a short walk from Easter Road. However, Hughes feels it is his CV at Falkirk that secured the Hibernian job for him, not his affinity for the club or the fact that he wore a green-and-white shirt for four years when he played in central defence between 1996 and 2000.
“This is a very proud day for me,” he told the Hibernian website. “I am delighted to be the manager. Everyone knows what Hibernian means to me. I have so much respect for the club and its supporters that I would not have accepted the job if I did not think that I could make a real difference and be successful.
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“It is important to me that the board have identified that it is my managerial ability, and not my history as a Hibernian player, as the reason I have been appointed.”
Hughes is likely to be joined at Easter Road by Brian Rice, his assistant at Falkirk, another man who also played for Hibernian. The club, worried by poor sales of season tickets after finishing sixth in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and on the back of wretched cup campaigns, seized the initiative once Paatelainen resigned 11 days ago.
Ironically, Hughes had taken Falkirk to the final of the Homecoming Scottish Cup, where they lost to Rangers, and the semi-finals of the Co-operative Insurance (CIS) Cup, yet on a far more modest budget compared to the one he will have at Hibernian. Hughes will have to sacrifice European football - Falkirk have qualified for the Europa League - the absence of which convinced the Hibernian board that Paatelainen’s tenure had run its course.
“John Hughes was the unanimous choice of the board not for his exploits as a former player, but for his credentials as a manager, his style of football and his potential to bring success to the club on the field of play,” Rod Petrie, the Hibernian chairman, said. “I am sure that John will galvanise everyone connected with Hibernian and drive the club forward. The board will never lose sight of the requirement for Hibernian is to be competing for honours and we see John as the ideal candidate to achieve this.”
Hibernian supporters have watched their best managers lured elsewhere. Easter Road was the launching pad for the career of Tony Mowbray, who was poached by West Bromwich Albion in 2006, with John Collins arriving as replacement and the former Scotland player won the CIS Cup in 2007 before leaving 14 months later. Alex McLeish was recruited by Rangers in 2001.
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Hughes was McLeish’s captain at Hibernian and could easily have followed his former manager south of the border. He was on the radar of Swansea, who have to find a new manager with Roberto Martínez poised to take over at Wigan Athletic.
Falkirk, though, now join the growing number of clubs who must spend the next few weeks urgently seeking a new appointment because of the game of managerial musical chairs. Hughes had been in charge of Falkirk for six years. “I have great affection for Falkirk FC and would like to thank everyone connected with that club for the fantastic opportunity they gave me to cut my teeth as a manager,” he said.
“My future now lies with Hibernian and I believe I will bring innovation and an attractive style of passing football to the club. I can’t wait to start working with the players and get down to business at the training centre.”
Falkirk’s board will meet this evening to start the search for a successor. “This will be a very attractive position to many people in football,” Martin Ritchie, the chairman, said. “We are now an established Premier League side, we have an excellent infrastructure in place to support a new manager. We also have our first foray into European competition to look forward to.”
George Craig, the Falkirk managing director, said: “It is imperative that we move quickly to make a new appointment. We have several out-of-contract players and the new manager will want to decide which he wants to keep.”