Former Hibs’ skipper Gary Caldwell has been appointed as manager of English Championship side Wigan Athletic.
Caldwell joined Hibs on loan from Newcastle United, making his debut against Celtic in 2002 before going on to make 118 appearances for the club, scoring seven goals. He also helped Hibs reach the League Cup Final in 2004, before leaving for Celtic.
He also won 55 caps for Scotland and will always be remembered for scoring against France in a historic 1-0 win at Hampden Park.
The 32-year-old is a popular figure in Wigan, making over 100 appearances between January 2010 and May 2014 where he captained the club.
Yesterday he told the Wigan athletic website: “I am very proud, it’s still a little bit strange hearing people call me the manager of Wigan Athletic.It’s been a really busy 24 hours but it is something that I’m really proud of, to say that I’m manager of Wigan Athletic. It’s a club that means a lot to me; I’ve been here over five years now, I’ve had some great times and I’m really looking forward to the massive challenge ahead.”
“It has always been an ambition of mine to be a manager; I think most players will tell you that I was a manager on the pitch, I got everyone to do my running for me and cover up for my deficiencies by bossing them about! This time I’ll get to do that without having to play alongside them. Leadership is something I’ve always looked at; I’ve always wanted to be the captain of the football club, the leader, and to become a manager is the natural progression. It’s obviously come very quickly in my career; it’s something I’ve always looked forward to, though. I’ve spent the longest part of my career at this club and it’s a club that’s really special to me.”
“I’ve worked with many great managers throughout my career and good people that have shaped me and the way I played the game and obviously I’ll take bits from each of them,” Caldwell continued. I also want to be unique in my views on the game and make my own philosophy and try and bring that to this club. I want to play the game the right way, I want to pass the ball but ultimately I want to win football matches and that’s what I was like as a player, and as a manager that will be the same. I’m after that desire that, as a player myself, I always wanted to display; I always wanted to be someone that was committed for the team that I played for and show desire to win football games. I know a lot of the boys really well and I’ve sat in a changing room with them every day, only as recently as the other day so I know them well. It’s a changing room full of good people, full of good players, but I just want them to show a real commitment to the cause and to the new ideas that we can hopefully bring to try and win football games.”
“I think the fans have always been great here; the times when we stayed in the Premier League we really got the fans behind us in the run-ins. It’s a family club, it’s a club with great fans, we don’t get big numbers – something people like to tell us about – but when they do come here, they always come and support the club and the players are always thankful of that. There’s some great memories for me; things like the people who used to come and ask for autographs on the way into the stadium before the big games in the Premier League. It’s something that we need for the fans to come back and we’ll try and give them a club that they can be proud of again and we’ll try and win matches for them.”
The news comes as a relief to Hibs supporters as Alan Stubbs was named in the media as a possible candidate.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
