Former Irish League manager Rodney McAree is backing Liverpool new boy Liam Hughes to make the most of a “massive opportunity” with the Premier League giants.
The Northern Ireland U21 goalkeeper, who worked under McAree when he was Dungannon Swifts boss, joined the Anfield club from Celtic earlier today.
And McAree believes the 19-year-old, who will be part of Liverpool’s U23 squad, has the perfect mentality to thrive at the home of the English champions.
“It’s a massive opportunity for Liam and I’m delighted for him,” said McAree, who also joined Liverpool as a teenager in 1989.
The former midfielder featured for the youth team and reserves at Anfield, before going on to play for Fulham and Bristol City.
"It would be great to see him progress there," he added. “It’s an unbelievable move for Liam and I know he’ll do everything to make the most of it because he’s got a great attitude.
"He always wants to work hard at his game and he is a great character. He has a good family behind him and it’s fantastic to see him earn a move to a club like Liverpool."
McAree, now part of Barry Gray’s backroom staff at Warrenpoint Town, smiles when recalling the first time he visited Hughes at his home near Lurgan.
The teenager, who made his senior debut for Portadown at only 15 years of age, signed for Dungannon from the Ports in the summer of 2017 before earning a move to Celtic six months later.
“I went down to his house with Dixie Robinson to sign him and out in the back garden he had a full size set of goal posts,” said McAree. “Not a plastic Samba set, a full size set!
“I thought to myself, this lad’s only 15 and he’s got a proper set of goal posts in his garden. Dixie and I were taking free-kicks at him! But that told us how dedicated he was.
“Looking back, he was so young when he signed for us, but even at that early age you could see he had a bright future ahead of him.
“We knew we’d have immediate interest in him from cross channel clubs and so it proved, I think he signed for Celtic a few months later.
“Even as a 15 or 16-year-old, he was a great size for a young lad and he also had good feet. He had everything you like to see in a goalkeeper.”
Hughes moved to Celtic in February 2018 where he graduated to the reserves and was around the first team squad during the 2019/20 campaign when Craig Gordon was injured.
