Gary Caldwell: Exeter City appoint former Celtic and Scotland defender as manager

Gary Caldwell has been appointed as Exeter City's manager on a "long-term contract".

He led Wigan to promotion to the Championship in 2016 and has also had spells in charge of Partick Thistle and Chesterfield.

He takes over from Matt Taylor, who left to take charge of Rotherham United earlier this month.

• New manager 'must respect Exeter City DNA'

"The development aspect of the club, the challenge of League One again was really appealing," Caldwell told BBC South West.

"Right from the start I've been very excited by this football club and the whole interview process was extremely professional, and now I'm just really eager to meet the players and get started.

"We have to acknowledge the job that Matt Taylor did here, a fantastic job over a number of years," he added.

"I have to try and build on that and take the good work that has been done and take that forward and move forward.

"This club is always about development and evolving and growing, and it's no different now. We have to take it forward and see where it takes us this season and beyond."

Exeter are eighth in League One, three points off the play-off places, after gaining automatic promotion under Taylor last season.

"As a supporter-owned club, Exeter City is unique and it was vitally important that we chose the right person to continue our journey," said supporters' trust chairman Nick Hawker and club president Julian Tagg in a joint statement.

"Gary brings a great deal of experience to our club and we're excited and optimistic for the future."

"We would also like to put on record our thanks to interim manager Kevin Nicholson and Jon Hill for stepping in to manage the team over the last couple of weeks."

As a player Caldwell won two Scottish Premiership titles, a Scottish Cup and League Cup with Celtic between 2006 and 2009, before five years at Wigan Athletic between 2010 and 2015.

During his time at the DW Stadium he lifted the FA Cup after a historic 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley in May 2013, and featured in the club's FA Cup semi-final defeat by Arsenal the following season.

He won 55 caps for Scotland and, after retiring from playing in 2015, joined the coaching staff at Wigan, becoming manager in February 2015 after Malky Mackay's sacking.

Caldwell could not stop the club from being relegated that season, but did see them bounce straight back to the Championship the following year before leaving in October 2016.

Spells in charge at Patrick and Chesterfield, and a coaching role at Newcastle United followed before he re-joined Hibernian - the club where he had first made his name as a player - in December 2021 as assistant manager, until he and Shaun Maloney were sacked in April.

Analysis

Brent Pilnick, BBC Sport

Whoever was to take over from Matt Taylor had to be aware that they were not taking on any old football club.

The supporter-owned Grecians run on a tight budget with players from the club's much-vaunted academy being pushed towards the first team more than almost any other side in the EFL.

Caldwell is only the third new manager at St James Park in 16 years and represents a departure from the club's two previous appointments in someone who is a 'name' and has experience of managing a club at a higher level - Taylor was an academy coach while his long-serving predecessor Paul Tisdale came from non-league Team Bath.

Taylor was a popular figure around the club having been a promotion-winning captain as a player and spending a successful four years as manager after a stint with the academy, ending with him being named League Two manager of the year in May after guiding Exeter to second place in the fourth tier.

Tactically it will be interesting to see what, if anything, Caldwell does to change a system of three central defenders, wing-backs and two forwards, while the club may see bids for some of their best players such as Jevani Brown, Cheick Diabate and Josh Key in forthcoming transfer windows.