Franck Sauzee returning to Hibs is brilliant but I just hope he's forgiven me for losing his BOOTS - Tam McManus

Someone's been cutting about the north of Glasgow for 20 odd years with a pair of Franck Sauzee’s boots. Now would be as good a time as any to hand them back in, if they don’t mind.

The big man is coming back to Hibs for the first time in 20 years next week and will feature in a charity match for the Hanlon-Stevenson Foundation. I’d bet he could still do a job in Lee Johnson ’s backline. Sauzee’s the best I’ve played with. Nobody I knew could lace Le God’s boots. But I at least had the honour of cleaning them when I was a youngster coming through at Easter Road.

That was until I lost his precious Copas on a trip home to Springburn one weekend. My pals back in Glasgow wouldn’t believe me when I told them part of my job was polishing the Frenchman’s footwear. Against my better judgement I decided to take the boots home with me one day.

We had no game at the weekend and I finished on the Friday before heading back west so I sneaked the Copas with ‘Sauzee 4’ on them into my bag. I was on the books at Hibs but was still kicking a ball about with my pals when I went home so I took Franck’s boots down to Springburn Park and wore them and the look on my pals’ faces was priceless.

That was me a hero with all the boys. But I left them outside my mum’s front door for an airing that night and when I got up on the Sunday morning someone had nicked them!

I’d lost Le God’s precious footwear and my stomach was collapsing all the way back to Leith. He wouldn’t be fobbed off with a spare pair either - Franck wanted his Copa’s for training and the truth was someone in the north of Glasgow was cutting about with them on their feet!

I was in the bad books and Franck kept the whole angry act up hours to make sure I didn’t get off lightly.