JIM HELPED RIX THROUGH DUFF TIMES

JIM DUFFY was a true friend to Graham Rix when the Hearts manager didn't think he had one left in the world.

Even the Tynecastle fans were outside the ground's front door chanting obscenities as the manager's past threatened to destroy his present in the early days after his appointment.

Now "Duff", as he's known to everybody in the game, can give Rix additional lessons in how to handle alienation after the former Hibs manager was appointed

Hearts coach.

But Duffy is anxious that nobody should think he's been given a job with his former rivals because he helped pull his boss through his early dark days in Edinburgh.

Duffy said: "Graham and I first came together at Dundee and we've coached together at Chelsea and Portsmouth.

"He asked me about going to Tynecastle in his early days there but I knew what the gaffer was having to deal with off the park concerning the headlines about his private life.

"And I also knew there would be more publicity if he took on a former Hibs manager.

"We even agreed not to make public the details of my appointment until after last Saturday's derby match because it would have been an unhelpful distraction for the players.

"But now I can say I'm a man who was out of work and agreed to accept a job offer from a club managed by an old friend.

"I was once employed by Hibs but then I was once employed by Celtic, Morton, Falkirk, Dundee, Chelsea and Portsmouth as well.

"I wasn't with Hibs for long, although some of the fans at Easter Road might say I was there for too long.

"The bottom line now is that there's a masochistic tendency deep within managers.

"They want to be sent to the front line."

Rix embarked on that hazardous journey when he shocked everyone by becoming Vladimir Romanov's successor to George Burley, the man who'd taken Hearts to the top of the league and then got the sack.

The severity of the response to his arrival left Rix reluctant to leave his temporary accommodation at Dalmahoy Country Club for fear of retribution in the streets of the capital.

Duffy then became a regular visitor but he said: "I wasn't his sounding board and I wasn't trying to be his mentor.

"I was a friend doing what a friend does when a pal's going through a hard time.

"I know I haven't got my coaching job out of any old pal's act. I've got experience and I wanted back into football."

There'll be no jealousy behind the scenes over the appointment of a third coach to help John McGlynn and Stephen Frail, Rix's assistants.

Duffy was the one who told Rix that the first thing he had to do was retain McGlynn. Friel is also a childhood friend from their days being brought up in Maryhill.

He said: "John is Hearts through and through and Graham needed that about the place.

"I first met Stephen before he went to school and our parents were good friends as well.

"I certainly won't be attempting to change anything at the club. My job is to listen, offer any input I can and then keep my trap shut while Graham gets on with his job."

Taken from the Daily Record