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Emlyn Hughes
| Category: | Male Player (People's Choice) |
| Year Inducted: | 2008 |
Profile by Robert Galvin, the author of Football's Greatest Heroes, the official book of the National Football Museum Hall of Fame:
After being earmarked for greatness by Bill Shankly, Emlyn Hughes twice lifted the European Cup as captain of Liverpool, having established himself as a cornerstone of the side that dominated English football in the late 1970s.
Soon after signing Hughes from Blackpool for a club-record fee of £65,000 in 1967, Shankly famously - and prophetically - described his latest recruit, then a raw 19-year-old with barely two dozen first-team appearances behind him, as ‘a future captain of England'.
Boundless in his energy and enthusiasm, Hughes was indefatigable, much like Shankly had been during his days as a wing-half with Preston North End. Of the two, Hughes was the more adaptable, though, excelling at both full-back and in midfield before finding his niche for both club and country as a left-sided central defender.
In 1973, nearing the end of his time in charge at Anfield, Shankly said: ‘Emlyn Hughes has been simply immense in all positions. He is the most adaptable and most versatile player in England probably. He can play in four or five different positions and still look a star.'
The ebullient Liverpool manager had tried to buy Hughes on the spot after witnessing by chance his debut for Blackpool the previous season. Now, within a month of his arrival, Hughes was playing in front of the Kop. This was, Shankly declared emphatically, ‘one of the most important signings of all time'.
In making 665 appearances and scoring 48 goals for Liverpool over the next 12 years, Hughes did all he could to justify such a bold judgement on the part of his manager. His personal honours list read: two European Cups, two UEFA Cups, four Division One championships and one FA Cup.
A favourite of the Kop, Hughes was infectious in his good humour. On the big occasion he could also be distraught in defeat. ‘Emlyn wore his emotion like a badge,' Graeme Souness once said.
On one memorable occasion early in his Liverpool career, Hughes rugby-tackled an opposing forward - hence his enduring nickname ‘Crazy Horse'. Liverpool fans ‘could see that Emlyn was ready to die for the club. He was one of them - and they loved him for it', Souness added.
An important turning point in Hughes' career came in 1973-74 season when Shankly switched him to central defence alongside Phil Thompson and handed him the captaincy. Tactically, it would be a change that paved the way for Liverpool's emergence as the supreme power in European football under Shankly's successor, Bob Paisley.
‘Liverpool had played with a big centre-half for years, but then suddenly we had Phil Thompson and myself.' Hughes wrote later. ‘We weren't particularly tall but we could play on the ground. We took that into Europe, and that was Shanks' idea. He made us into a great side.'
By now, Hughes was an established international, having made his debut in 1969 during the Alf Ramsey era. In all, Hughes won 62 caps, 59 of them with Liverpool, establishing him as the most-capped Englishman in the club's history up to that point.
Handed the England captaincy by Joe Mercer in 1974, Hughes kept the job when Don Revie took over as national team manager on a permanent basis. Their relationship turned sour, however, when Hughes was dropped, seemingly for good, during the qualifying campaign for the 1976 European Championships.
Two years and 15 internationals later, Hughes was back. In his autobiography, published in 1980, Hughes wrote: ‘Don later apologised for dropping me. He told me: “Emlyn, you proved me wrong.”' His outstanding form for Liverpool had forced Revie's hand.
By the end of the same season, Hughes had been voted Footballer of the Year by the soccer writers, in recognition of his contribution in helping Liverpool defend their championship title and win the European Cup, a trophy Hughes would lift again in 1978.
Two years later, Hughes completed his haul of domestic honours when he lifted the League Cup as captain of Wolves following a £90,000 transfer to Molineux. That summer Greenwood selected him in his squad for the European Championships in Italy, the culmination of an international career spanning three decades; remarkably, Hughes bowed out without a single booking to his name.
Summing up his qualities as a footballer, Hughes said: ‘ My stamina was my strength. As a boy growing up I would spend long sessions running up and down the sand dunes in Barrow. As a player I always had a very low heart beat.'
In June 2008, on hearing of Hughes' induction into the Football Hall of Fame, Phil Thompson told Sky Sports News: ‘Emlyn was a great, great player. He could do anything. Terrific in the air, he would read the game and he scored some spectacular goals. This honour is so well deserved.'