Gary Caldwell ‘ back at Newcastle United as U-23 coach!

Newcastle has a new Under 23 coach.

It may have passed the big news channels by because of the continued turmoil around the world, but nothing gets past us, we noticed and its Gary Caldwell everyone.

Caldwell is coming back to a club he knows well , though it’s a different club to the one he left , we were in the Champions league then and I don’t know if anyone has noticed? But we are not anymore.

It’s a job which turns full circle for the Stirling born ex defender who spent most of his time at St James’ on the training ground or the reserves then pitch at Kingston Park.

The appointment certainly is an unexpected one. Although he has suffered a nightmare few years in management , I see him as the sort of bloke who applies for every management vacancy going’and this is hardly the field of dreams at the moment.

The Under 23’s have well and truly arrived on Ashley’s burgeoning ‘couldn’t give a toss about’ list and have done for years now. Its been well documented elsewhere that the production line hasn’t produced for quite a long time now and even its pride and joys, the Longstaff brothers , are as closer to returning to the under 23s than being Premier League regulars.

The previous incumbent Chris Hogg clearly sees more future being the number two at the might of Milton Keynes Dons rather than continuing with the job marshalling the next generation of Newcastle players.

When a player of class actually does arrive like Anderson or players who look capable of filling a first team bench like Watts , they are more likely to be knocking on , cough , loan supremo Shola Ameobi’s door than Bruce’s.

That’s the way it is. So for Caldwell this is a no win or no lose situation one in which tries to rebuild his reputation in a massive club.

Yet again though we are here with a manager or coach joining the set up having failed in other jobs of late. No one ever comes to the club anymore on a high , headhunted or chased, we get the bloke clearly had a good reputation but one which has been shattered by bad decisions. Welcome aboard Gary.

Caldwell as a player was one of those players who was there and before you noticed him , he had been included in the Scottish international teams hall of fame .

As one Scotland fan described him as a player ‘he’s s**te but he’s our s**te’. He gave his all in a barren generation for Scotland and his 55 caps show that.

It doesn’t matter what anyone says, you are no mug if you have over 50 caps for your country, so many great players never got near that.

The trophy laden few years at Celtic was followed ‘by ‘a stunning FA Cup triumph at Wigan .

Ex Tottenham youngster Souleymane Coulibaly who played alongside Kane but played under Caldwell at Partick Thistle disagreed with all the above ‘Caldwell knows nothing about football‘ ‘.

Welcome aboard Gary.

Wigan flew down the leagues after the cup triumph of course and Caldwell was offered his first job in management in April 2015 taking over from Malky MacKay (remember him ) in his early thirties and though he didn’t save the Latics from dropping into league 1 , he had enough goodwill as a player to be tested the next season.

The next season they romped to the title under Caldwell playing dominant free flowing football and a boatload of goals. Cynics suggested the parachute payments helped Caldwell but loads of teams have ‘had those and didn’t come out of the third tier at the first time of asking . Or the third time of asking.

However Wigan were far too open in the championship and Caldwell was sent down the road in 2016 after a terrible start.

His next appointment was at Chesterfield and this is where it got interesting.

The Spireites were a league one club pushing to get into the championship with a spanking brand new stadium and it could have went either way. Its safe to say it went the wrong way.

From near championship to near National league North in five years is some going and some Chesterfield fans have never forgiven Caldwell for his part in the demise of the Derbyshire club.’Which seen as he only managed for 36 weeks is some going.

When he left after 29 games he had the worst record in the history of the club. ‘He was unable to stave off relegation from league one but he lost his recruitment man Paul Mitchell who went on to completely change Sheffield United and brought his own players in , it was disastrous as Chesterfield were bottom of the next league when he went next season. He isn’t popular down there.

He’s not exactly popular in the Partick area of Glasgow either and his next job was eerily like the Chesterfield job but ended again in terrible circumstances as Thistle flew down the leagues from top 6 Premiership to League 1 strugglers.

Caldwell could hardly be blamed for all of that and took them from struggling to 6^th‘place in his first season and they were installed as favourites the next year but an incredibly bad start saw them not win a game until late September and though they got to the cup Quarter Finals, they were dire and players fell out with Caldwell and fans got on his back.

This was the second red flag job for potential employers and it’s the last job he’s had until United came calling.

Caldwell isn’t just a failed Partick thistle manager though and one player who played under him at Chesterfield who had been used to ex manager Paul Cooks ‘Stag Do’ type away trips was amazed at Caldwell’s meticulous sessions and its obvious he’s a good coach but probably not a good manager.

That’s where we are right now at the club and hopefully Caldwell turns his career around at United and we get the benefit.

Just be thankful he didn’t get the top job that’s all . Good luck!

SCOTT ROBSON