There’s no single reason Whites fans hold Hughesy in such high regard. He battled hard on the pitch, was proud to wear the shirt, is always entertaining in interviews and from the moment he signed, you sensed there was nowhere else on earth he’d rather be. Andy Hughes was living the dream at Elland Road and did so with a humility which quickly endeared him to the fans, fully aware of and brutally honest about his own limitations but never allowing them to excuse a bad performance. What he lacked in ability he more than made up for in hard graft.

In an interview with Radio Leeds, Hughesy talks about his time at Elland Road with great affection, commenting on how his decision to join the club was an immediate and resounding ‘yes’ despite having to take a pay cut and the difficult situation he’d be walking into. Leeds were set to start the season at the lowest point in their entire history and with a 15 point deduction for good measure, but that didn’t deter Andy Hughes for one second. To him, Dennis Wise’s call was the realisation of a dream.

The day Leeds United wiped clear the last of those 15 points and celebrated the bizarre milestone of reaching zero, Andy Hughes was made captain of Leeds United and jokes it’s a fact that’ll become a pub quiz question in years to come and something he’ll have carved into his gravestone.

His interview with Adam Pope is heartwarming to the extreme, Andy Hughes is what happens when the lad sat next to you in the Kop is given chance to pull on the famous white kit, his name forever etched into the history books as a representative of Leeds United. He doesn’t need any reminder of how much it means, he’s acutely aware that representing Leeds United is a great honour, something tens of thousands of us would give almost anything for.

I’ve written about cult heroes in the past in an article which featured Andy Hughes and while he’s right to point out that ‘legendary’ status should be reserved for the extremely talented high-achievers like Gordon Strachan and Billy Bremner, it follows that we can – and indeed should – hold other players in similarly high regard. Andy Hughes was never going to lead us to domestic and European glory, but when called upon he gave everything he could for the cause. That’s all Leeds United fans really ask of any player.