I didn’t just want to body slam Jase - I wanted to take him out. I really felt like throwing him over top ropes. It would have been a TKO!
SAYS ALAN STUBBS
THERE are some gaffers who would flip if they saw their star man attempting high-flying wrestling moves days before a Scottish Cup semi-final.
Indeed Alan Stubbs admits there were times when he was tempted to drop kick Jason Cummings and give him the Hulk Hogan treatment.
But the former Hibs manager watched the Easter Road striker turn Big Daddy with Scottish grappling star Grado and thought it was absolutely brilliant.
The clip of Cummings – or “Cum Dog” as he calls himself – became an internet sensation in minutes earlier this week with the crackpot hitman’s ex-boss insisting he’s superb for dressingroom morale ahead of Saturday’s last-four tie against Aberdeen.
Stubbs reckons you have to let Cummings do his thing but admits he came close to KOing the goal king when he duffed his Panenka penalty in last year’s semi against Dundee United.
Hibs got off the hook to make the Final and lift the trophy after a 114-year wait, saving the striker’s bacon and his blushes.
But Stubbs said: “I didn’t just want to body slam him – I wanted to take him out. I wanted to throw him over the top ropes. It would have been a TKO!”
Cummings could drive him mad but Stubbs insists he’d never give the forward the elbow for his dressing-room japes. He said: “Oh yeah, I’m all for that kind of stuff – it is great. It gives you a marker of the team spirit.
“You saw the number of people involved in the canteen in terms of the players so it gives you a really good indicator of how close they are.
“I know how close they are – they are a great bunch of lads. I’m delighted for them.
“Jason’s a great lad. He was exactly the same when I was there. He’s brilliant for the dressing room. Sometimes you have to curtail it a little bit.
“Looking at the video, I think he has been in the gym a little bit recently!
“You need that. Him being the type of person he is, you don’t want to take that off him either.
“He is what he is. You have to sometimes turn a blind eye to it but sometimes he needs help as well just to guide him along the right way.
“He has made a couple of decisions in the past that are regrettable but he’s starting to mature and grow up a little bit.”
Stubbs had to wrestle with Cummings on a few occasions during his two years in charge but reckons the 21-year-old – with 21 goals this season – has finally learned the ropes.
He said: “My kick up the backside was when I’d bring him into the office and speak to him. We had some harsh words at times. Sometimes I was pulling my hair out with him. But the one thing was I wanted to be there for him, I wanted to be there to help him. I didn’t want to cut him away and let him make the same mistake again.
“It was just when he was caught up in a couple of unsavoury incidents, off-field stuff we tried to help him with.
“He has his own apartment now. He has got himself a girlfriend, his dog and it’s all part of finding out who you are. He’s doing that.
“He has done a lot of talking on the pitch and that is what we all want to keep reading about – what Jason’s doing on the pitch.
“He has certainly learned. When you sit down and speak to him face to face he actually knows what’s what.
“He’s quite intelligent when you are having a one-to-one conversation – he’s not one of those you think it’s going in one ear and out the other and you are looking right through them.
“He understands, has an opinion and wants to learn. That is the biggest thing I’ve found about him – he wants to learn and be as good as he can be.
“And if he does that who knows where he is going to be. Jason’s a goalscorer. Everybody wants a goalscorer, everybody is willing to pay top dollar for one whatever league you are in, whether it is the Scottish Premiership or whether it is in England.”
Stubbs has already admitted he regrets leaving Easter Road last summer as his move to Rotherham turned sour with his sacking less than five months later.
There is no way he grudges the Hibs class of 2017 success though – and he’d be thrilled if the Scottish Cup holders can keep the trophy in their grasp.
The Championship winners will need to do it the hard way with the red-hot Dons first and the winner of the Old Firm clash 24 hours later waiting in the Final. However, it’s going to take some special moves to wrestle the cup off Cummings and co.
Stubbs said: “I’m not disappointed in any way about wishing it was me or whatever, not at all. I couldn’t be any happier for them – Leeann Dempster, Rod Petrie, George Craig, Graeme Mathie, all the staff. I’m over the moon for them.
“It has been a great defence of the trophy – they’ve got to the latter stages again. The record of getting to Hampden in recent years is as good as any.
“Is the pressure off Hibs this year? 100 per cent. But I’d take pressure to win things over pressure to stay in a division any day of the week. It’s completely different.
“Hibs go into this game with an element of pressure because they want to win. But in some ways it’s a free shot at Aberdeen.”