Yogi still has the bare necessities
JOHN HUGHES fully deserves the shot at redemption he has been handed by Ross County. It’s time he got another crack at management. True, ‘Yogi’ might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Surprisingly, he’s still the only football person ever to have invited yours truly to ‘step outside’… an invitation that was politely declined. We’d been having a heated debate, if memory serves, over a column piece on the demolition job he’d done at Raith Rovers. Not a single word of that criticism was — or is — retracted. But Hughes has been out of work since leaving Stark’s Park in 2017. Even Raith regulars still suffering flashbacks to that horrific period might concede that he has repaid his debt to society. Yes, the game has moved on in threeand-a-half years. Chairmen and chief executives these days want a Jack Ross — cerebral, measured, deliberately uncontroversial — as the face of their football department. But there’s no denying that, beneath that gruff exterior, Hughes possesses an impressive understanding of the game. In short, he’s too good a gaffer to have been left sitting on the sidelines for so long. The hope is that the former Hibernian, Inverness CT and Falkirk boss — a Scottish Cup winner with Caley Thistle, remember — has used his time in exile to reflect upon mistakes made last time out. Surely he won’t alienate the entire first-team squad by publicly questioning their character, professionalism and hunger, a tactic that backfired spectacular on him in Kirkcaldy. However he plays it, Hughes will certainly add a dash of colour to the Premiership.