John Hughes relished link up with John Collins at Livingston

SIXTY years of footballing experience between them, a friendship which stretches back to boyhood, and an identical philosophy of how to play the game: these and other factors have convinced John Hughes that he and John Collins will be a success at Livingston.

Hughes was yesterday confirmed as the new manager of the First Division club, succeeding Gary Bollan, who was sacked last week. Collins is Livingston’s director of football operations, a post which technically makes him Hughes’s boss, although his role will also involve hands-on work with the playing squad.

Collins was unable to attend the unveiling of the club’s new management team, having previously agreed to work on television coverage of a Champions League match. But Hughes was more than able to hold court on his own, and spoke with his usual unquenchable enthusiasm about what brought him back to football, 16 months after he was dismissed from Hibernian.

It was a return he made in a couple of stages, with Collins, also a former Hibs manager, the driving force in each. First, Collins persuaded Hughes to get back into a regular routine, one which involved playing golf morning and afternoon at Craigielaw Golf Club in East Lothian. Then, having come to an agreement with the Livingston board to take charge of their footballing operations, he told Hughes he wanted him to be manager.

“I needed that time out of the game to rest and relax and recharge my batteries,” Hughes said. “I was glad to be out of it. I wanted to take a rest and reflect.

“Then John stepped in and told me I had to get up in the morning, get a routine and keep it going, because I couldn’t sit back and feel sorry for myself.

“The locker room at Craigielaw with boys like the Saltman brothers was like a football dressing-room. John and I would be showing them football tactics using salt and pepper pots and they loved it.

“Then I said I needed to get working again, and I was down south watching games for myself, doing match reports, building up a dossier of players and teams. Over the last four months I’ve kept very active.

“I only found out about this job in the last couple of days, John keeps his cards very close to his chest.

“He told me he might be going in to be director of football at Livingston and asked if I fancied being manager. I told him to get his bit done first then I’d talk to him. He did that, then I spoke to him.”

Hughes is 47 now, Collins 44. They have known each other since their earliest days in football. “My friendship with John Collins stretches back to our Hutchison Vale Boys Club days,” Hughes continued. “Then when I went to Celtic he helped me settle in. It’s not easy when you are an Edinburgh boy coming into a Glasgow dressing room with all that banter flying around. But John, being my friend, looked out for me and helped me – but then when I’d settled in I was like ‘right, get off my peg Collins’.”

“This partnership doesn’t faze me, it inspires me. John’s a very inspirational guy with the way he conducts himself and goes about his business and beliefs on how the game should be played.

“I’ve never come across a professional like him. Everyone in Scottish football will say that. What’s the matter with being the best you can be?”

Collins himself has not been in a similar position since he stood down at Hibs at the end of a difficult period in which many players turned against him, supposedly over his demands that they work more on their fitness. The problems at the Easter Road club then are still being felt now, and Hughes made it clear that he agreed with his new colleague over the attitude he took then. What is the matter with being 100 per cent professional?,” he asked. “If they [the Hibs players] did not want to do that it’s a shame that John Collins was the one that suffered.”

Livingston chairman Gordon McDougall stressed that the recruitment of those two big names would in no way jeopardise the club’s tight finances. Collins, who has media and other commitments to honour in the short term, had suggested that he would be part-time at the club, but Hughes believes that, no matter how much he is getting paid, he will devote himself wholeheartedly to the new project.

“John’s 100 per cent. I started laughing when he said he’d start initially part-time. Who’s he kidding on? He’s got things in his life at this moment in time he needs to take care of before, but he’ll be hands on deck.”

Having been linked with several vacancies since leaving Hibs, Hughes has felt the disappointment of failing to be appointed to posts he found attractive. Now he is back in the game, he has every intention of making up for lost time.

“I knocked back a couple of things which me and John were approached about. We just had to be patient and this is the right one.

“There were also a couple of things I went in for and never got, which was disappointing, but this is another chapter for me.

“I still feel like I’m a young manager, because I played till I was 40. Ive got a long time to go and I still think I’ll be in football when I’m 65.

“Football’s the only thing I know. I loved my time at Hibs, but this is a new chapter for me. I’m a grafter and it’s time to get the boilersuit on once again.”