Rice seeks new Fletcher for Hibs

Brian Rice expressed his delight at becoming Hibernian's assistant manager and vowed to help the club replace striker Steven Fletcher.

Rice, who was confirmed as John Hughes' right-hand man this week, said finding a quality replacement for the new Burnley forward was a priority.

"Steven's moved so now we need to move on," said Rice.

"We need to find a replacement. Ideally, there would be another kid coming through."

Fletcher became Burnley's record signing when he left Leith in a £3m move and Rice, who spent some of his playing career south of the border, understands the lure of playing in England.

"Steven's a fantastic talent and he's going on to play in the best league in the world," added Rice. "So nobody could stop Steven doing that, I think it would be foolish to try to.

"We've only been at the club two days so I don't really know every kid yet but it won't be long before I do.

"But we need to find another one, two, three, four Steven Fletchers."

Rice, who also assisted Hughes at Falkirk, began his professional career with Hibs in 1980 before spells at Nottingham Forest, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Clyde.

"It's obviously a dream to come back here," said Rice. "It was 29 years ago that I came through the doors for my first pre-season here and it's 24 years since I left here as a player. It's fantastic to be back.

"Obviously I'm back coaching now. It's just come right out of the blue and it's something that I didn't think would ever happen.

"I never had any decisions to make; as soon as John was going, I was going. If John was going to be leaving Falkirk with no club to go to, I was going. If John was going to Hibs, I was going to Hibs.

"We always come as a pair. John's the leader, he's head man and I support him."

"John, to be fair to him, is very good. People always see John as on the television and in the papers always talking, talking, talking but he's a very good listener. We sit down, we have long conversations together and we do a lot of travelling together. In fact, we spend most of our lives together.

"Having a good cup run would be a great achievement"

"We talk a lot. John gives me a lot of say and listens but at the end of the day, he's the gaffer and he decides what's right and what's wrong but he does give me my say and listens to what I've got to say."

And Rice believes the new management team can enjoy success at Hibs by adopting the same philosophy of passing football they employed with the Bairns.

"We both desire success," he added. "We don't think it'll be immediate success, we know we've got a long-term plan but right away, we need to see progression.

"We need to start progressing right away from what we had last year and then we take it from there. We need to see progression every single year.

"The league is the one where you've got to maintain your standards that and hopefully we'll get as far up the league as possible and try to get into Europe.

"Having a good cup run would be a great achievement."

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