ONE text message made up of a whole eight words was enough to sum up Scott Arfield the footballer and person.

“Done and dusted. Head down. Keep working hard.”

This was the Rangers player’s response to John Hughes when his former manager offered congratulations on the midfielder’s first senior hat-trick which had come an hour or so earlier at Motherwell’s Fir Park on Sunday.

Scott Arfield has got better and, surely, richer since his teenage days at Falkirk when Hughes was his manager - but not everything has changed.

The Herald: John Hughes previews the Scottish Cup semi-finalsJohn Hughes previews the Scottish Cup semi-finals

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He is still the same unassuming West Lothian lad who would rather go about his business than be drenched in praise. Indeed, it was a real surprise to see him milking the applause from the Rangers supporters on Sunday.

Even the most grounded can get carried away. For one day at least.

“I think Scott is going to be pivotal next season to Steven Gerrard, 100 per cent,” said Hughes. “Scott is so grounded.

“He is a great kid. When I texted him about his goals, he texted back and said: ‘Done and dusted. Head down. Keep working hard.’

“You can’t ask for more than that. He will be part of it, that’s for sure.

“‘I love Scott. I have been on record before as saying he is the kind of player who will end up being first on Stevie Gerrard’s team sheet. Because he is a managers’ dream.”

Arfield was certainly that for Hughes when they worked together.

The pair helped get Falkirk to the 2009 Scottish Cup Final at the end of a season in which they had battled successfully to keep the club in the Premier League.

A superb Nacho Novo goal won that final for Rangers but the best players were on the losing side with Arfield in particular a stand-out.

Hughes knew back then that he had a kid with the attitude to match the talent.

The Herald: John Hughes (centre) with Scott Arfield (right) in 2006John Hughes (centre) with Scott Arfield (right) in 2006

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“The only problem for Scotty is that he can play in a number of positions and you don’t know what his best position is,” said the other Yogi.

“He could play right-back, trust me. He was a great right-back and able to bomb on throughout a game. He can also play sitting midfield, right wing, left wing and come off a striker and into the pockets of space behind him.

“You look at what he did at Fir Park on Sunday and it was three good goals, really accomplished finishes.

“As I said, he is a manager’s dream. In the way he trains as well as plays. He trains every day like it is his very last day at training. He is at it all the time. Never slacks off.

“I’m really delighted for him to see how he is doing. I texted him – I won’t tell you my nickname for him – just to say ‘well done’ and how pleased I was. He is enjoying it.”

Hughes and Arfield stayed in touch after the player joined Huddersfield Town. He stayed for three years before a move to Burnley which took him all the way to the Premier League.

He wore the number 37 shirt at Turf Moor as he does now at Rangers. Random? Far from it. This was the squad number of his friend Craig Gowan, tragically killed in 2005.

A freak accident meant the 17-year-old was electrocuted when 20-foot poles he was carrying came into contact with overhead wires at the Little Kerse training ground in Grangemouth.

Arfield, now captain of the Canadian international team, is good guy, and also one not afraid to ask advice when making a big decision.

“Scotty phoned me up when he had the chance to go to Rangers and asked me what I thought, revealed Hughes. “He was thinking about all the Celtic-Rangers stuff and all that.

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“I asked him where he was going to stay and it was well out of Glasgow. I told him straight away to go for it. Any player who gets a chance to play for any part of the Old Firm, you go and take it.

“The only thing I thought was that he was coming from the English Premier League. To go from there in Scotland, you are encountering some very different stadiums – no disrespect to them – than what he was used to down south.

“I told him he had to get his head around that, but this was a chance to play for Glasgow Rangers.

“By the time Scott actually signed, Stevie Gerrard had already been confirmed as manager and took over a couple of weeks later.

‘He is such an iconic figure in football. For Scott to go in there and work with Stevie Gerrard and Gary McAllister – and play for Rangers – is brilliant.”

Hughes is an admirer of Arfield’s current manager and predicted another busy summer at Ibrox in terms of players coming and going.

“Gerrard will know what he has to do because Celtic are still way out in front,” said the man who won the Scottish Cup with Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2012.

“But Celtic have a wee bit of rebuilding to do themselves, with Dedryck Boyata probably leaving and even a wee bit of speculation about Kieran Tierney.

“In terms of Rangers, I think they are still three or four short and that’s what they need to find. And they will.

“With contacts Steven has and the pull of Glasgow Rangers, I think they will get in the three or four they need. Then it will be all to play for next season.”

John Hughes was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is a proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup