GARY CALDWELL PROFILE: League titles, a goal against France, Premier League red cards and lifting the FA Cup

Chesterfield's new manager is a former Scottish international who has tasted league titles as both a player and a boss.
Gary Caldwell celebrates
Wigan Athletic v ArsenalGary Caldwell celebrates
Wigan Athletic v Arsenal
Gary Caldwell celebrates Wigan Athletic v Arsenal

Gary Caldwell picked up two Scottish Premier League winners’ medals with Glasgow giants Celtic, and won League One last year with Wigan Athletic.

He was also an FA Cup winner with the Latics during his playing career, won the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup with the Bhoys and scored the winner for his country in a famous 1-0 victory over France.

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Now 34, Caldwell’s career began as a youngster at Celtic Boys Club before joining Newcastle United at 16.

Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko
Wigan Athletic v Spurs

(Wigan Sportspix)Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko
Wigan Athletic v Spurs

(Wigan Sportspix)
Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko Wigan Athletic v Spurs (Wigan Sportspix)

He was to make his senior professional debut elsewhere however, during the 2001/02 season on loan with then Division Three side Darlington.

The same season the centre-half featured on loan for Hibernian and made his international debut in a 5-0 beating by France.

Forty-two appearances for Coventry City came the following season in another loan move.

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And after 10 games on loan with Derby in 2003/04, he made a permanent move to Hibernian.

Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko
Wigan Athletic v Spurs

(Wigan Sportspix)Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko
Wigan Athletic v Spurs

(Wigan Sportspix)
Gary Caldwell beats Roman Pavlyuchenko Wigan Athletic v Spurs (Wigan Sportspix)

Caldwell was a regular for the Hibees, playing over 100 games for the Edinburgh club before a move to Celtic in the summer of 2006.

He played 32 times for Celtic as they went on to win the Scottish Premier in his first season at Celtic Park.

And the following season they won it again, Caldwell amassing another 53 appearances, including 10 Champions League games – including wins over Benfica and Milan and two games against the mighty Barcelona.

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The defender made his last appearance for Celtic in January 2010 in an Old Firm game against Rangers, before signing for Wigan Athletic.

He was sent off twice in the last four games of that season, against Manchester City and Chelsea, the latter red card coming in an 8-0 drubbing by the London club.

Caldwell became the Latics skipper the following season.

After three full seasons of Premier League football, Caldwell tasted relegation with Wigan in the 2012/13 campaign – the same season that saw him jointly lift the FA Cup alongside playing captain Emerson Boyce.

Injury robbed him of all but five games of the 2013/14 season, Caldwell missing a penalty on his return to the Wigan side in an FA Cup semi-final shootout loss to Arsenal.

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He then gave away a penalty in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg against Queen’s Park Rangers, a game Wigan lost 2-1.

That was to be his last game, a hip injury proving too difficult to overcome and he retired in February 2015 to go into coaching.

As a player he won 55 caps for Scotland and played more than 350 league games in a career that took him to seven clubs.

He took up a position with the club’s academy but found himself thrust into management just a few months later, named Wigan boss following the departure of Malky Mackay.

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Caldwell, who took over with the Latics in the relegation zone, couldn’t keep them up but remained in charge and led Wigan to the 2015/16 League One title a year later.

That achievement earned him the LMA League One Manager of the Year award.

The title winning season saw his Wigan side beat Chesterfield 3-2 at the Proact, and 3-1 at home.

In October of 2016 he was sacked by Wigan after winning just two of their first 14 Championship games of the season.

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He won 29 of his 71 games in charge of the Latics, losing 20.

After his sacking he spoke of his despair at not being given time to fix things at the DW Stadium.

“Having led the team to promotion in my first full season in charge as manager I was hopeful of being given the time necessary to turn results around and so it is with great sadness that I will now not be able to finish the job I started,” he said.

“I am fully aware that the results recently haven’t been good enough but having not lost by more than one goal all season, I truly believed that we were not far away from getting things right and turning the corner.”