So, it's John Hughes then. The outpourings of joy and cheer have been abundant...from fans of other clubs. Caley Thistle supporters were ready to accept Paul Hartley as their Messiah; however, the Alloa manager pulled out for personal reasons. So, instead of hiring the brightest young coach in the country, we've got Yogi Hughes. After our manager left for Hibs, we've replaced him with a man whose last top flight job ended with him being sacked...by Hibs. That's not encouraging.
So, let's remind ourselves - who is John Hughes? He was a decent central defender who spent most of his playing career at Falkirk and Hibernian - both of whom he managed later on. In between, he had a solitary season at Celtic Park. Apparently he's called 'Yogi' purely because there was another footballer with the same name, 20 years earlier, who had that nickname. No, it's nothing to do with boo-boos. (I'll get my coat). Arguably his finest achievement as a player was being caught streaking in the background whilst Falkirk teammate Mo Johnston was being interviewed on Scotsport.
His first managerial job came at 39, when he took over from Ian McCall at Brockville,. Initially he was co-manager with teammate Owen Coyle, but he took sole charge from the start of the 2004-05 season. (Falkirk won the first division in 2003-04, but weren't promoted because Brockville was, well, a death trap.) I had it in my memory that Yogi was a good manager when at Falkirk, but hindsight offers a different perspective. His second full season in 2004-05 saw the Bairns win promotion, though, if I recall correctly, they had the strongest squad that year. Their SPL finishes under his command were as follows: tenth, seventh, seventh, tenth. In 2007-08, they blew a top six place by losing to Aberdeen in the final match before the split. But they were very nearly relegated in his final season in charge, only surviving thanks to a last day win against, funnily enough, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who went down as a result. They did reach the Scottish Cup final that year, losing to Rangers.
He was entertaining on the touchline, at least. In 2006, Falkirk visited Inverness for a League Cup quarter final on a cold Wednesday night. It was, frankly, one of the worst football matches I've ever seen. Falkirk won 1-0, but it was such a dreadful spectacle that I was relieved that Graham Bayne missed a late sitter as I couldn't face the prospect of extra time. The only entertainment on show that evening was provided by the Falkirk manager. Yogi spent most of the game berating a young Liam Craig over his positioning - "LIAM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" If I recall correctly, whilst Falkirk's players celebrated their goal, he took the time to scream at a few of his players, rather than displaying any joy at all. Most strikingly, there was an incident where, after Caley Thistle had booted the ball out for a Falkirk injury, a Bairns player punted the drop ball out for a throw-in just beside our own corner flag, rather than put it back to the keeper...and Yogi went absolutely ballistic over the poor sportsmanship. He even ordered his his players not to contest the throw-in, which earned him a fair bit of applause from the home support.
At Falkirk he developed a reputation for 'pretty football', whatever the hell that means. In this case, it seems to have referred lots of tippy-tapping around the halfway line. He did, however, bring through talented youngsters such as Darren Barr and Scott Arfield, and, given that he managed to procure some very high quality loanees from down south, including the likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Tim Krul and Anthony Stokes (who was an Arsenal youth at the time), he must have a decent contacts book. But form could be terribly erratic, and he was lucky to be able to call on the mercurial Russell Latapy; as the Trinidadian aged, the club's star began to wane a bit.
Still, there weren't too many complaints when he was appointed as Hibernian manager - at that point he was seen as an up and coming coach. His tenure at Easter Road started pretty well. At the end of January 2010, Hibs were third, only two points behind Celtic. Then it all appears to have gone horribly, horribly wrong. They only won three of the last sixteen league games of the season and stumbled to fourth. He was dismissed in October, after his side won only one of their first seven SPL matches of the new season. There was a worrying increase in the use of the long ball towards the end, and reports of a breakdown in discipline which included players refusing to warm down after matches. How much of this is Hughes' fault is open to debate; his successors did not exactly turn things around. But it spreads a seed of doubt in my mind regarding his man-management skills.
However, I'm more disturbed by the list of signings he made for Hibernian - Patrick Cregg, Danny Galbraith, Kevin McBride, Graham Stack, Anthony Stokes, Liam Miller, Graeme Smith, Mark Brown, Edwin De Graaf, David Stephens, Michael Hart, Francis Dickoh, Valdas Trakys. Stokes and Miller (who had one good year at the club) aside, there is no-one on that list who will evoke fond memories in any Hibee. I have nightmares that, by February, ICT's solid central midfield will have been ditched as the new manager signs Cregg and McBride yet again in the deluded belief that they are any good.
After Hibs, he spent a bit of time as Head Coach at Livingston, working with Director of Football John Collins. His role there seems to have been more about developing youngsters than getting results, and he was highly though of at Almondvale prior to his departure for Hartlepool United last winter. The League One side were hopelessly adrift at the bottom and required a miracle worker - instead they got Hughes, who did well enough to get a manager of the month award, but not well enough to save them from the drop or to avoid the sack.
Yeah, it's not a CV that makes one's soul burn with excitement, is it?
That said, it's not fair to automatically dismiss him as a certain failure, either. And I will at least stand up for him regarding preconceptions that he isn't the sharpest tool in the box. More than one person that I've spoken to about Hughes' appointment has instantly responded with "he's a moron" - a common viewpoint that seems based less on anything that he has actually said and more on snobbery about his accent; unfortunately, just about anyone from Leith, intelligent or not, is doomed to sound more like a neanderthal than a quantum physicist. If you listen to what he says, rather than how he says it, he's not bad. Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't an articulate man, after all.
So, in conclusion, John Hughes has come to Caley Thistle at a time when his career appeared to be heading in the wrong direction, several years after his last success in the dugout. But then you could say the same about Terry Butcher in January 2009 as well. That didn't turn out too badly, did it? I'm not exactly enthralled, but I'm quite happy to give Yogi plenty of time to prove us doubters wrong. He has inherited a talented squad with an excellent attitude; if he has the sense, and the humility, to keep things much the way they are now, he should at least keep Caley Thistle on track for the time being.
L.
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