JOHN COLLINS insists Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Hughes should be in the running for the Celtic job.

Hughes is understood to be considering his position at Inverness following the loss of striker Miles Storey to Aberdeen and Collins, who served as assistant to the outgoing Ronny Deila during a Premiership-winning campaign, sees the former Celtic defender as an ideal candidate to take over the reins at Parkhead.

"The first thing I will say is John Hughes has done an unbelievable job at Inverness," he said.

"Do you make players better? Do you make teams better? Do you play a brand of football that is entertaining? John Hughes ticks all those boxes.

"He took on a team that was a long ball team, played no football and he very quickly moulded them into a total football team.

"They got to the League Cup final in his first season and lost on penalty kicks against Aberdeen.

"In the second season they beat Celtic in the semi-final and won the Scottish Cup.

"On top of that, he has sold players and made players better.

"How his name hasn't been mentioned for the Celtic job I don't know. What he has done with average players, no support, no training ground, no sports science, no video analysis is incredible.

"If Inverness lose John Hughes then it will be a huge loss to them."