Colin Calderwood

Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the interim head coach of Northampton Town.

As a player, he was a centre-back who played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and in the Football League for Mansfield Town, Swindon Town, Nottingham Forest and Notts County. He was capped 36 times for Scotland and was part of their Euro 96 and World Cup 98 squads.

Following retirement, he became manager of Northampton 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 to Newcastle United, working as first team coach. After a year with the Tyneside club, Calderwood became a manager again by moving to Hibernian, but he was sacked after just over a year in that job. He was associated with Chris Hughton for several years, working as his assistant manager at Newcastle United, Birmingham City, Norwich City and Brighton & Hove Albion. After a spell as assistant manager at Aston Villa, he returned to full-time management and had two years in charge of Cambridge United.

Club career

Mansfield Town Despite being born and raised in the Stranraer area, Calderwood never played in the Scottish leagues. He started his career in the lower reaches of The Football League in England, with Mansfield Town. He played 100 league games for the club, three as substitute. His debut for Mansfield was spoiled by the club making an error in his registration which caused them to be deducted two league points. as they won the Fourth Division title.

Swindon narrowly avoided relegation in the 1990–91 season, which Calderwood mostly missed after a tackle by Wolves player Steve 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 of Glenn Hoddle, Swindon were promoted to the newly founded Premier League at the end of the 1992–93 season after a 4-3 playoff final victory over Leicester. Calderwood was picked for the Football League representative side, playing against their Italian counterparts.

Tottenham Hotspur Calderwood's contract with Swindon expired in the summer of 1993. Former manager Ossie Ardiles signed him for Tottenham Hotspur, with a tribunal setting the transfer fee at £1.25 million. Two days after the final Calderwood moved on from Tottenham in March 1999, signing for Aston Villa. He then had brief spells with Nottingham Forest before retiring. In his first two seasons in charge, Northampton reached the promotion playoffs. Calderwood enjoyed an unbeaten league start to his Forest campaign and won the managerial monthly award for August 2006. Forest led League One by seven points in late November 2006. This lead was squandered, and the club finished in fourth place, 11 points behind leaders Scunthorpe United. Forest lost 5–4 on aggregate to Yeovil Town in the promotion playoffs.

In the 2007–08 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 on eBay to raise funds for presents to hospital patients in Nottingham.

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. Forest won six out of their last seven games, which was enough to earn a second-place finish and automatic promotion to the Football League Championship.

Newcastle United Calderwood was appointed first team coach at Newcastle United on 26 January 2009. Newcastle were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season. Calderwood then worked as an assistant manager to Chris Hughton as Newcastle gained promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt by winning the 2009–10 Football League Championship.

Hibernian On 18 October 2010, Calderwood left Newcastle to become manager of Edinburgh side Hibernian. After three losses in his first three matches in charge, including an Edinburgh derby defeat by rivals Hearts, Calderwood's first win as Hibs boss came in a shock 3–0 win against Rangers at Ibrox. 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. A five match winning run lifted Hibs up into eighth place in the SPL and earned Calderwood the SPL monthly award for February 2011. Hibs finished the 2010–11 season in tenth place. Calderwood was sacked by Hibs on 6 November 2011, having won just 12 games out of 49.

Birmingham City Calderwood was appointed assistant manager at Championship club Birmingham City on 24 November 2011, working with Chris Hughton for a third time. When Hughton left for Premier League club Norwich City on 7 June 2012, Calderwood went with him as assistant manager. He left the club when Hughton was dismissed on 6 April 2014.

Brighton and Hove Albion In early February 2015, he was appointed assistant manager at Brighton & Hove Albion, rejoining Hughton for a fourth time. He resigned from the club on 12 November 2016 to take up a position elsewhere.

Aston Villa After Brighton played out a 1–1 draw with Aston Villa on 18 November, it was confirmed that Calderwood would become assistant manager at Villa, working with Steve Bruce.

Cambridge United Calderwood was appointed manager at Cambridge United on 19 December 2018. He joined the club on an initial 18-month contract. Cambridge avoided relegation in his initial period in charge.

Blackpool Blackpool head coach Neil 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.

Northampton Town Calderwood returned to Northampton as assistant manager on 17 June 2021.

Southampton On 30 October 2023, Calderwood joined Southampton as first team coach. He departed the club in January 2025.

Return to Northampton Town

On 28 January 2025, Calderwood return to Northampton Town to become Director of Football.

On 9 March 2026, following the departure of Kevin Nolan, Calderwood was appointed interim manager of the club.

Career statistics International Scotland national team YearAppsGoals 1995 9 1 1996 8 0 1997 7 0 1998 8 0 1999 4 0Total 36 1

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

Honours Player Swindon Town Second Division play-offs: 1989–90 First Division play-offs: 1992–93 Third Division play-offs: 1986–87 Fourth Division: 1985–86

Individual PFA Team of the Year: 1991–92 Second Division

Manager Northampton Town League Two runner-up: 2005–06

Nottingham Forest League One runner-up: 2007–08

Individual League One Manager of the Month: August 2006, November 2007, April 2008 League Two Manager of the Month: January 2006