Hughes completed a full set of English football domestic honours by winning the League Cup with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1980.

He made his debut for Blackpool in 1964 playing alongside Jimmy Armfield and Alan Ball, initially as an inside forward, but later at left-half.

Hughes settled into the midfield at Liverpool during a transitional period for the club, earning the nickname "Crazy Horse" after an illegal rugby tackle on Newcastle United winger Albert Bennett.

Ramsey gave Hughes his debut on 5 November of that year, playing him at left back in a friendly against the Netherlands at the Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam.

Hughes, not yet 23, survived the cull, together with Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith, and the new recruits who would help establish Liverpool's dominance in the 1970s began to arrive.

Hughes had six caps by the time Ramsey included him in his provisional squad of 27 which flew to South America for altitude-acclimatising friendly games against Colombia and Ecuador.

He controversially withdrew Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters in the second half but retained a clearly exhausted Terry Cooper, who played at left back the entire 120 minutes although Hughes was available to replace him.

"[citation needed] By this time, Hughes had established a reputation for charging upfield from his defensive midfield position on long runs, and for constantly berating referees.

In 2008, Tommy Smith claimed in his autobiography that on 8 May 1972, Hughes told him that he had been speaking to a number of Arsenal players who were "willing to throw a match for £50 a man."

After scoring goals in a memorable win over Merseyside rivals Everton at Goodison Park, Hughes was made Liverpool captain after Tommy Smith had a publicised falling-out with Shankly, who nonetheless kept him in the team.

Smith and Hughes' off-field relationship, already strained due to the bribery incident 18 months earlier, fractured beyond all repair after this, although it never visibly affected their football.

Then Poland had a breakaway after a misplaced tackle by Norman Hunter in the second half, and only Hughes and goalkeeper Peter Shilton were back to defend.

At the end of the 1973–74 season, Liverpool reached the FA Cup final and beat Newcastle United 3–0, with Hughes receiving the trophy from The Princess Anne.

Hughes captained England for all of Mercer's seven games in charge, and initially maintained the role when Don Revie was appointed as Ramsey's permanent successor.

The 1976–77 season began with a shock recall to England by Don Revie, who played Hughes in the second qualifier for the 1978 World Cup, under national captain and clubmate Kevin Keegan.

Hughes was now predominantly a central defender and played in a tactically disastrous team against Italy in Rome, which marked the lowest point of Revie's tenure as England manager.

Revie gave Hughes the England captaincy back for a Home International match against Scotland when Keegan was unavailable, before selecting him for the squad which would tour South America in the summer.

In 1978, Hughes was in the Liverpool team which played and lost its first ever League Cup final, to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in a replay.

The league title went to Forest too, but Liverpool retained the European Cup with a 1–0 win over FC Bruges at Wembley, allowing Hughes to lift the trophy for a second consecutive year.

By this time Hughes's place in the side was under threat from talented young Scottish defender Alan Hansen, who had arrived the previous season for £100,000 from Partick Thistle.

His 59 appearances for England while at Liverpool made him the club's most capped player until Welsh striker Ian Rush broke the record more than ten years later.

Greenwood included him in the squad for the European Championship finals in Italy as an experienced reserve, but Hughes did not play any matches and England were eliminated in the group stages.

He also became only the fifth player to represent England in three separate decades, joining Jesse Pennington, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton.

Inheriting a side that had won the Third Division championship under Ian Porterfield, including such players as John Breckin, Tony Towner and Ronnie Moore, Rotherham made a patchy start to the season and were in the relegation zone in January.

In 1979, Hughes became a team captain on the long-running BBC quiz A Question of Sport, opposite the former rugby union footballer Gareth Edwards.

In 1992, he appeared on an episode of GamesMaster promoting the football video game which carried his name, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.

England forward Wayne Rooney attracted controversy after throwing his black armband to the floor, following a 42nd minute substitution for Alan Smith.

[14] In the 1980 New Year Honours, Hughes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to football,[15] and later featured on the television tribute show This Is Your Life.