Andrew Hughes is headed to Spain. The former Leeds United cult hero has been named set-piece coach at Athletic Club, the La Liga side where Marcelo Bielsa made his European mark years ago. It’s a gig that connects two very different eras of the club’s history, and it’s one Hughes earned after a quick stint with Scotland at the World Cup.
Hughes, a Manchester native who spent three seasons at Elland Road between 2007 and 2010, will officially join Athletic next Monday. The 139 appearances he made for Leeds included helping Simon Grayson’s squad win promotion from League One in 2009-10. That’s the kind of blue-collar career that made him a fan favorite in Yorkshire, even if he never got the glamour treatment.
After retiring as a player in 2015, Hughes moved into coaching and bounced around the English Football League. His resume includes stops at Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, and Bolton Wanderers. Most recently, he worked on Steve Clarke’s Scotland staff during the World Cup, handling set-piece responsibilities there. That experience apparently caught the eye of Edin Terzic, the 43-year-old coach who took over at Athletic earlier this month.
The Bielsa connection
It’s impossible to talk about Athletic Club without mentioning Bielsa. The Argentine boss managed the Basque side for two seasons, and while he didn’t win any trophies, he left a lasting impression. His team famously beat Manchester United 3-2 at Old Trafford in the Europa League round of 32, then finished the job with a 2-1 win at San Mames to knock out Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad. That’s the kind of achievement that still gets mentioned in Bilbao bars.
Bielsa later took over at Leeds and became a legend there, so the connection between the two clubs runs deeper than just one coach. Hughes now sits somewhere in that strange overlap between Leeds nostalgia and Athletic’s current rebuild.
Athletic finished 12th in La Liga last season, a solid but unspectacular spot. The table was ridiculously tight. They ended up six places above relegated Mallorca, but the gap was only three points. That’s how tight things were. Terzic clearly wants to find an edge, and hiring a dedicated set-piece coach is one way to get it.
Set-piece coaching has become a bigger deal in European football over the last few years. Clubs treat dead-ball situations like a separate department now, not just something the assistant handles on a Wednesday afternoon. Hughes has spent years working on that specific skill set across multiple leagues, and Athletic is betting he can turn those quiet moments into goals.
Hughes hasn’t given any interviews about the move yet, and the club’s statement was typically straightforward. But fans on both sides of the Atlantic have been sharing old clips of his Leeds days, remembering the left back who never stopped running. That’s the kind of legacy that travels well, even when it lands in the Basque Country.
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