IN a career that has spanned Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Manchester City, Mark Hughes has played with and managed some of the game’s greatest players.

Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola, Gary Lineker and Robinho. Hughes has been fortunate to mix with some of football’s biggest hitters over two illustrious decades – but he insists Tugay is right up there with the best he has seen.

When the Turk departs Ewood Park tomorrow afternoon for the last time, it will spell the end of an eight-year love affair in East Lancashire that has seen him established as one of the club’s all-time greats.

His expected retirement will leave the football world reflecting on losing one of the Premier League’s true ‘entertainers’ with Hughes himself claiming there have few better to have graced the English game.

The now Manchester City boss managed Tugay for four successful years during his Ewood Park regime between 2004-08, having previously enjoyed a brief time as his Rovers team mate, and insists he was a joy to know.

He said: “Because the quality he can produce is as good as I have seen in all my career, he is up there with the top 10 players I have been involved with – I can’t give him higher credit than that.

“He is an outstanding player and still is. He still has quality and I had the pleasure of playing alongside him and managing him as well. As a guy that gives you everything on a daily basis, both on the field and on the training ground, you couldn’t ask for a better guy.

“He has got a wicked sense of humour which endears him to people and his ability.

“I have said many times if he was 10 years younger I would be looking to buy him.”

At 38 years of age, Tugay is now the oldest regular outfield player in the Premier League, with only Hull’s Dean Windass and Portsmouth goalkeeper David James his senior anywhere in the top flight.

Hughes though believes his contribution to Rovers’ relegation battle this campaign shows he can still cut it with the best – sympathising with the person who finally had to call time on Tugay’s career.

Hughes said: “I am glad someone else has had to do it because it must have been a big decision. I have seen him play this year and he is still capable of having an impact and an influence.

“But it seems the decision has been made. He will be a loss to the Premier League because he has been a credit to himself.

“Tugay is his own man. I don’t think he will be a manager because he would have to give interviews and I don’t think he has done many over the years.

“I wish him well, he is a great guy and if he does go into this mad world I am involved in then good luck to him. Because he has great experience and would be a great help to young players coming through.”

Known as the ‘joker’ of the pack, the former Galatasaray man has had just as much as an impact behind the scenes with Hughes admitting his loss will be felt in the dressing room as much as on the terraces.

“He used to moan and groan a bit if he wasn’t playing but that wouldn’t affect his training approach,” he said. “He used to have some black moods now and again but we would leave him alone for a while and he would quickly come back to the Tugay we actually like.

“He is a great guy. I have a lot of time for Tugay and I wish him the best in whatever he does.”