While Aberdeen and Celtic are still working on getting a new manager in place, Hibs new manager, John Hughes is making plans for the future.

John Hughes
Hughes will not be shy about getting his views across to players
The trials and tribulations suffered by Falkirk last season provided John Hughes with the experience required for taking on his next challenge: taking on the reins at Easter Road. Hughes is now the manager of the team he supported as a boy and went on to captain towards the end of the 1990s. During his six years in charge of Falkirk, Hughes won the First Division title (twice), established the Bairns in the SPL and took the club into Europe courtesy of reaching last month's Homecoming Scottish Cup final. Despite all this, he was still the target of a campaign to get him removed from the managerial seat in the dugout earlier this year when members of fan group the Bairns Trust wrote an open letter to then-chairman Campbell Christie demanding his sacking. Granted, Falkirk were looking like a lost cause sitting at the bottom of the SPL but Hughes managed to deliver a successful survival bid, thereby transforming the club's season into one of the best in their history. Hughes knows his troubles are not behind him and fully expects to be put through the wringer again over the next three years. However, he feels the heat of battle at Falkirk has tempered his mettle for the battle ahead

He said: "There'll be times when I'll have to put my tin hat on and have to have skin as thick as a rhino. That's part and parcel of the job. That's why that last year at Falkirk was a great experience for me, because there was plenty of flak flying about. But we came through it and that was possibly the final hurdle I had to cross for me to show everybody that I can handle that side of it as well." Hughes has not made any bold statements about where he can take the Edinburgh side. It takes time to consider what can be done within the constraints of his current pool and any resources which will be made available. He said: "It would be foolish of me to put that sort of pressure on myself and on players. Those expectations can be very, very dangerous. What we'll do is just work away and see where it takes us."

Fans will be looking for Hughes to battle hard to retain the services of key players like Steven Fletcher and Rob Jones as well as fighting to bring quality players to the club. Hughes, though, insisted he would not hold it against any player who had a valid reason for wanting to opt out of his Easter Road revolution. He said: "I'm not a guy who says, 'You're not doing this' or 'You're not going there', and you have to be like that. That's the kind of style I have as a man manager; I'm in it with my players. Saying that, I'm not one to shy away from confrontation or anything like that, and I run a tight ship - that's the way it should be. They'll enjoy working with me and they'll be plenty of humour, plenty of fun and they'll love the training."

Hughes has repeatedly laughed off suggestions he and Hibs chairman Rod Petrie did not get on, but he revealed he does have a score to settle with striker Colin Nish. Hughes said: "The players will enjoy working with me... apart from big Nishy, because every time he played against Falkirk, he always scored against us. So he'd better watch himself in the seven-a-side!"

Editor
Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba.net)

Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba.net)

This is Scottish-Fitba.Net