 Calderwood in 2007 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Colin Calderwood[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1965-01-20)20 January 1965 (age 60)[2] | ||
| Place of birth | Stranraer, Scotland | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[3] | ||
| Position | Centre-back[4] | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1982–1985 | Mansfield Town | 100 | (1) |
| 1985–1993 | Swindon Town | 330 | (20) |
| 1993–1999 | Tottenham Hotspur[5] | 163 | (6) |
| 1999–2000 | Aston Villa | 26 | (0) |
| 2000–2001 | Nottingham Forest | 8 | (0) |
| 2001 | →Notts County (loan) | 5 | (0) |
| Total | 632 | (27) | |
| International career | |||
| 1995–1999 | Scotland | 36 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2003–2006 | Northampton Town | ||
| 2006–2008 | Nottingham Forest | ||
| 2010–2011 | Hibernian | ||
| 2018–2020 | Cambridge United | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professionalfootball manager and formerplayer.
As a player, he was acentre-back who played in thePremier League forTottenham Hotspur andAston Villa and in theFootball League forMansfield Town,Swindon Town,Nottingham Forest andNotts County. He was capped 36 times forScotland and was part of theirEuro 96 andWorld Cup 98 squads.
Following retirement, he became manager ofNorthampton Town in 2003, guiding the club to promotion in 2006. He then became manager of Nottingham Forest helping the club win promotion in 2008. Calderwood was sacked by Forest in December 2008 and then moved toNewcastle United, working as first team coach. After a year with the Tyneside club, Calderwood became a manager again by moving toHibernian, but he was sacked after just over a year in that job. He was associated withChris Hughton for several years, working as his assistant manager at Newcastle United,Birmingham City,Norwich City andBrighton & Hove Albion. After a spell as assistant manager at Aston Villa, he returned to full-time management and had two years in charge ofCambridge United.
Despite being born and raised in theStranraer area, Calderwood never played in the Scottish leagues.[6] He started his career in the lower reaches ofThe Football League in England, withMansfield Town.[6][7] He played 100 league games for the club, three as substitute.[3] His debut for Mansfield was spoiled by the club making an error in his registration which caused them to be deducted two league points.[2]
Swindon Town managerLou Macari signed Calderwood fromMansfield Town in 1985, with aFootball League tribunal setting the fee at £27,500.
The 21-year-old Calderwood was installed as the club captain,[2] and he made his debut on the first day of the season, a 1–0 defeat atWrexham on 17 August 1985. Although that season started badly, it ended with the Town breaking the League points record[8] as they won theFourth Division title.[2] Calderwood's performance in Swindon Town's defence won him the Adver Player of the Year award from theSwindon Advertiser.
The following season, Calderwood helped Swindon Town to their achieve their second successive promotion,[2] after beatingGillingham in the playoff final replay atSelhurst Park.
As Swindon gradually improved in Division Two, Calderwood led the defence, missing only thirteen league games over the next three years. At the end of this period, he led the Town to their first promotion to the top flight, after beatingSunderland in the playoff final at Wembley in 1990. Shortly afterwards, Swindon were demoted to the Third Division due to an irregular payments scandal. The club were reinstated to the Second Division after an appeal. Calderwood was arrested and questioned by the police with regard to the scandal, though was not ultimately charged with anything.[9]
Swindon narrowly avoided relegation in the 1990–91 season, which Calderwood mostly missed after a tackle byWolves playerSteve Bull caused a serious injury. During the following two seasons, Calderwood returned to be an ever-present in the Swindon side. Now under the management ofGlenn Hoddle, Swindon were promoted to the newly foundedPremier League at the end of the 1992–93 season after a 4-3 playoff final victory overLeicester. Calderwood was picked for the Football League representative side, playing against their Italian counterparts.
Calderwood's contract with Swindon expired in the summer of 1993. Former managerOssie Ardiles signed him for Tottenham Hotspur, with a tribunal setting the transfer fee at £1.25 million.[6] This set a new Swindon Town club record for transfer fee received.
Whilst at Tottenham Hotspur for five years Calderwood played with a succession of defenders includingGary Mabbutt andRamon Vega. While at Tottenham he gained many of hisScotland caps, making his debut againstRussia in theUEFA Euro 1996 qualifying Group 8 section.[2][6] Calderwood represented his country atUEFA Euro 1996 and the1998 FIFA World Cup, playing in all three matches at the first tournament and two matches at the second.[2][6] He was a regular under Scotland managerCraig Brown.
Despite not being part of Tottenham's squad for the1999 Football League Cup Final he made four appearances during their victorious League Cup campaign.[10] Two days after the final Calderwood moved on from Tottenham in March 1999, signing forAston Villa.[11] He then had brief spells with Nottingham Forest[12] andNotts County[12] before retiring.[6] Calderwood's career was brought to an end by a broken leg suffered while with Nottingham Forest.[6]
Upon retirement as a player, Calderwood becamereserve team manager at Tottenham. He becamemanager of Northampton Town on 9 October 2003.[13] In his first two seasons in charge, Northampton reached the promotion playoffs.[6] They finally won promotion in 2006 by finishing second inLeague Two,[6] setting a new club record for clean sheets in a single season, with 25.
Calderwood was appointed as manager by Nottingham Forest in May 2006.[6][14] Calderwood enjoyed an unbeaten league start to his Forest campaign and won the managerial monthly award for August 2006.[15] Forest ledLeague One by seven points in late November 2006. This lead was squandered, and the club finished in fourth place, 11 points behind leadersScunthorpe United. Forest lost 5–4 on aggregate toYeovil Town in the promotion playoffs.[6][16]
In the2007–08 season, Forest failed to win any of their first six competitive games of the season. Forest went on a good run of form after this, losing just once in fifteen games. Calderwood won a manager of the month award during this run, but he decided to sell the award trophy oneBay to raise funds for presents to hospital patients inNottingham.[17] The auction was said to have raised around £2,000.[17]
After this, there was a spell of inconsistent results, particularly away from home, which led to Forest dropping into the promotion play-off zone. Forest were nine points short of the automatic promotion places with just four games remaining, which led Calderwood to admit that automatic promotion was unlikely.[18] Forest won six out of their last seven games, which was enough to earn a second-place finish and automatic promotion to theFootball League Championship.[6]
Calderwood was sacked by Forest in December 2008, as the club had secured just four wins by Christmas.[6][19]
Calderwood was appointed first team coach atNewcastle United on 26 January 2009.[20] Newcastle were relegated from thePremier League at the end of theseason.[21] Calderwood then worked as an assistant manager toChris Hughton as Newcastle gained promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt by winning the2009–10 Football League Championship.
On 18 October 2010, Calderwood left Newcastle to become manager ofEdinburgh sideHibernian.[22] After three losses in his first three matches in charge, including anEdinburgh derby defeat by rivalsHearts, Calderwood's first win as Hibs boss came in a shock 3–0 win againstRangers atIbrox.[23] Despite this surprise victory, Calderwood suffered criticism after Hibs went on a poor run of results, winning just two of his first fourteen matches as manager.[24][7] This prompted speculation that he had offered to resign, which was denied.[24] A five match winning run lifted Hibs up into eighth place in the SPL[25] and earned Calderwood theSPL monthly award for February 2011.[26] Hibs finished the 2010–11 season in tenth place.[27]
In June 2011,Birmingham City andNottingham Forest both approached Hibs with a view to appointing Calderwood as their assistant manager.[27][28] Calderwood was sacked by Hibs on 6 November 2011, having won just 12 games out of 49.[29]
Calderwood was appointed assistant manager atChampionship club Birmingham City on 24 November 2011, working with Chris Hughton for a third time.[30] When Hughton left for Premier League clubNorwich City on 7 June 2012, Calderwood went with him as assistant manager.[31] He left the club when Hughton was dismissed on 6 April 2014.[32]
In early February 2015, he was appointed assistant manager atBrighton & Hove Albion, rejoining Hughton for a fourth time.[33] He resigned from the club on 12 November 2016 to take up a position elsewhere.[34]
After Brighton played out a 1–1 draw withAston Villa on 18 November, it was confirmed that Calderwood would become assistant manager at Villa, working withSteve Bruce.[35]
Calderwood was appointed manager at Cambridge United on 19 December 2018.[36] He joined the club on an initial 18-month contract. Cambridge avoided relegation in his initial period in charge.[37]
Calderwood signed 11 new players ahead of the 2019–20 season. His new-look squad had a goalless draw at Bradford City on the opening day, before upsetting Championship side Brentford in the League Cup first round in a penalty shootout. After a 4–0 win at Mansfield Town, Calderwood signed a two-year contract extension with Cambridge on 20 September 2019.[37] The team then had a poor run of results and he was sacked by Cambridge on 29 January 2020, following a 4–0 defeat to Salford City.[37] He left with the team 18th inEFL League Two.[37]
Blackpool head coachNeil Critchley brought Calderwood in to be co-assistant with Mike Garrity in October 2020. He remained in the role until June 2021, after assisting Blackpool's promotion to The Championship.[38]
Calderwood returned to Northampton as assistant manager on 17 June 2021.[39]
On 30 October 2023, Calderwood joinedSouthampton as first team coach.[40] He departed the club in January 2025.[41][42] He returned to Northampton Town shortly after as director of football for the club.
| Scotland national team[43] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1995 | 9 | 1 |
| 1996 | 8 | 0 |
| 1997 | 7 | 0 |
| 1998 | 8 | 0 |
| 1999 | 4 | 0 |
| Total | 36 | 1 |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 April 1995 | Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino |  San Marino | 2–0 | 2–0 | UEFA Euro 1996 qualification |
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Northampton Town |  England | 9 October 2003 | 30 May 2006 | 154 | 74 | 40 | 40 | 048.05 |
| Nottingham Forest | England | 30 May 2006 | 26 December 2008 | 136 | 57 | 42 | 37 | 041.91 |
| Hibernian |  Scotland | 18 October 2010 | 6 November 2011 | 49 | 12 | 11 | 26 | 024.49 |
| Cambridge United | England | 19 December 2018 | 29 January 2020 | 61 | 15 | 17 | 29 | 024.59 |
| Total | 400 | 158 | 110 | 132 | 039.50 | |||
Swindon Town
Individual
Northampton Town
Nottingham Forest
Individual
Scotland squads | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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