The story is told of the time when John Hughes, once a painter and decorator in his earlier life, was passing Hibernian’s Easter Road stadium while a player at the club in the late 1990s, when the old main stand was being given a fresh lick of paint.
Grabbing a brush off one surprised workman, Hughes set to work for a couple of hours to show them how the job should really be done.
Hibs fans must hope that the story is a good omen. Hughes, who will be unveiled today as the club’s new manager, has a job on his hands tarting up the current team. As Mixu Paatelainen’s successor, there is much excitement at Hughes’s imminent arrival from Falkirk, but also the usual Easter Road anxiety over how much of an impact the new manager will be able to have on the club.
Paatelainen brought in 15 new players in his 18 months in charge, and spent, by Hibs’s standards, a decent amount of money. Hughes will not have a lot to spend, but, instead, will be asked to make talented youngsters physically and mentally good enough to thrive in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League. It is a tall order.
On the surface Hughes coming back to Hibs is a Boy’s Own story. He is a Leith boy, who supported the club as a child, and who literally lived round the corner from the stadium when he was a Hibs defender — and part-time stadium decorator — from 1996 to 2000. On the sentimental front, Hughes ticks all the boxes. The question is, can he make Hibs a top-four SPL club, as the Leith legions crave?
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“One thing is for sure, I believe in myself,” Hughes said when he was grilled about his future after Falkirk’s recent Homecoming Scottish Cup final defeat by Rangers at Hampden Park. “I believe in my ability. I love coaching and I love working with young footballers to try to make them better.
“I also believe the game should be played in a certain way, and I have a strong work ethic about me. So long as my players share these things, then I’m happy.”
These were almost throwaway words by the ever eager, enthusiastic Hughes, but such sentiments chimed sufficiently with Rod Petrie, Hibs’s otherwise inscrutable chief executive, to make him the clear winner in the race for the managerial vacancy. If it is true that Hughes has a gifted way with young footballers then, arguably, Easter Road is the perfect place for this coach to reveal his talents.
In recent years Hibs have had the best pedigree in Scotland for producing young players. In such as Derek Riordan, Kevin Thomson, Scott Brown, Garry O’Connor, Steven Whittaker, Steven Fletcher and many others, the Easter Road club have put every other Scottish club to shame by proving what can be done with a talented, organised scouting system.
Nor has that recent Hibs tradition been exhausted. The club’s under-19 team have just swept all before them at that level in Scottish football — not repeatedly described as “all-conquering” for nothing in the Edinburgh Evening News — and seven members of that under-19 side have just been fast-tracked into the Hibs first-team squad. So, even if he has little money Hughes to spend, he won’t be short of raw, gleaming talent. The test awaits to see what he can do with it.
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Paul Kane, a former Hibs player much admired at the club in the 1980s and 1990s, and a boyhood friend of Hughes, spoke yesterday of his conviction that the new manager would prove his worth at Easter Road. Kane also pointed out that, unlike Hibs’s last three managers — Paatelainen, John Collins and Tony Mowbray — the new incumbent has quite a wealth of experience by comparison.
“John is no novice — he’s very experienced having spent six years at Falkirk where he has done very well,” Kane said. “It’s the sort of experience the last three Hibs managers haven’t really had, so hopefully he can use it to match the expectation levels of the supporters.
“I think John has shown incredible dedication throughout his career, combining playing with becoming a painter in the early days before slowly climbing the ladder. And I think he appreciates everything all the more because of that experience.
“He’s also got a great reputation for finding rough diamonds and polishing them. What you don’t see is the hard work that goes on, not just on the training ground, but in the countless trips up and down the motorway to England, watching, learning and identifying possible signings. Look at the way he got Anthony Stokes to come to Falkirk. John is dedicated and quite a deep thinker about the game.”
That said, one thing Hughes may have to find is a new centre half, given Rob Jones’s almost certain return to England this summer. It will be the first of many challenges facing this proud, young manager at a proud institution of Scottish football.