Calderwood exit: Rod Petrie must pick up pieces of botched choice

By Colin Leslie
Published on Monday 7 November 2011 03:11

ANOTHER Hibernian annual general meeting is looming and another almighty mess needs to be dealt with. A year ago, Easter Road chairman Rod Petrie sacked manager John Hughes on the very day the pair were due to sit before disillusioned shareholders and answer for on-pitch failings.

This time, the axe has fallen on the forlorn figure of Colin Calderwood. But the removal of a man who never once truly looked a comfortable fit in the post will not be enough to shield Petrie and his board of directors from serious questions about the managerial crises that are now becoming all too commonplace.

Only three months ago Petrie – renowned for his private manner – made an uncharacteristic leap into the spotlight to publicly voice his admiration for Calderwood, then in demand from both Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City, who wanted the former Scotland defender as their assistant manager – a scenario the man himself did nothing to discourage.

Rejecting the temptation of a six-figure compensation package to smooth the way for the departure of a manager who had already failed to deliver results, Petrie instead launched himself head-first into a stout defence of the enigmatic Calderwood, blaming the difficulties he had encountered in the job so far on “the unworkable legacy saddled upon the club by the previous incumbent” and then selectively adding: “Played 10, won 6, drawn 2, lost 2. These are the sort of statistics which show why Hibernian wants Colin Calderwood as its manager.”

Those statistics bizarrely focused on one brief ray of sunshine around the time of the January transfer window, in an otherwise gloom-laden reign. By homing in on this ten-game period of relative stability, Petrie in fact did more to highlight the unacceptable results which preceded and followed.

So what went wrong for Calderwood? To be blunt, what went right?

Petrie may have alluded to the “unworkable legacy” of Calderwood’s predecessor Hughes (who, it has to be said guided the club into a fourth-place finish and European football), but when the Stranraer-born former Scotland defender was relieved of his duties yesterday, the bulk of the Easter Road squad – languishing just one point off the bottom of the Scottish table – was his own creation. Calderwood undeniably had a job on his hands when he was appointed last October. Hibs under Hughes had become a pale shadow of the side he had moulded during his early months in charge. Confidence had drained from the side, and most supporters agreed that their former captain seemed to be treading water and the club were in need of a new manager.

Calderwood, who had never played or managed in his homeland despite winning 36 Scotland caps in a distinguished player career, was a surprising choice to try and revive fortunes at a club developing an unwelcome reputation for going through managers fast. But, Petrie had previously unearthed a gem in the forward-thinking Tony Mowbray, and the hope was that perhaps Calderwood – with no sentimental ties to the club – might just be another inspired choice.

However, the malaise which had crept in during the latter weeks of Hughes’ tenure, showed no signs of shifting, and as defeats continued to stack up, Calderwood at least had been granted the patience of the Hibs support, who felt the new man deserved time to build his own team and have the chance to turn fortunes around. Certainly, they felt, he should be allowed to start afresh the following season.

When the transfer window opened in January, Hibs’ lowly league position made it a necessity for Calderwood to prove his worth and demonstrate a keen and adventurous eye for the right calibre of player to breathe life into another deeply disappointing season. The former central defender dallied however, and before new faces finally arrived, Hibs had been painfully dumped out of the Scottish Cup by Ayr United.

The new recruits – including Victor Palsson and Akpo Sodje – at least provided the suffering supporters with some hope, but before long, the feelgood factor their arrival had briefly provided, ebbed away and Hibs resigned themselves to finishing the season with an unsatisfactory round of fixtures in the bottom six of the SPL.

Calderwood’s sacking can perhaps be traced directly back to this five-game sequence. There was a golden opportunity to turn a negative into a positive, by getting the team and fans re-energised and optimistic for the 2011-12 campaign with an end-of-season flourish. Instead, Hibs failed to win a game or offer any evidence that better times lay ahead. Despite the return of former favourites Garry O’Connor and Ivan Sproule on free transfers in the summer, Hibs released more than a dozen senior players. With the remains of a trimmed squad starting to take on the look of frees, loan signings and journeymen, it appeared that the lessons of 2010-11 had not been learned and ambition was again in short supply at Easter Road.

It proved the final straw for many fans, who reluctantly voted with their feet and consequently sent season ticket sales plummeting. Nothing produced by Calderwood’s Hibs has tempted them back, and Saturday’s home defeat to Dunfermline was the fourth time already in a dismal league season that the team has been turned over at Easter Road.

Hibs supporters, by and large, are a loyal bunch, but the unacceptable nature of Saturday’s 1-0 loss – which saw Calderwood’s strugglers fall behind in the third minute then looked devoid of ideas to undo the damage for the remaining 87 – prompted a demonstration against the manager and Petrie after full-time. That, it seems, was enough to force Petrie and his fellow directors to concede that Calderwood’s position was no longer tenable. Whether it will lead to a period of introspection remains to be seen.

When Hughes was forced out of the door this time last year, he commanded sympathy from supporters who recognised a man who had done his best and would leave the club he loved heart-broken, having been unable to deliver sustained success. In Calderwood’s case, few tears are likely to be shed. At a club that has long revelled in a tradition of attacking flair and creativity, Calderwood did not engage with the fans or produce a brand of football that would win their respect and admiration.

He won few admirers in the media either, with bland and often cryptic post-match observations. He also failed to become a fixture in the community, with his family based in Northampton, which must have been unsettling for him as he faced constant trips up and down the country as he attempted to balance the commitments in his life.

Then, of course, there were the results. Only 12 wins in 49 matches marks him as a failure in anyone’s language.

There were other factors too, that have hastened his departure. Calderwood’s absence from his club captain Ian Murray’s testimonial, an occasion which proved a celebration of club legends, never sat well with supporters. He was said to be on a scouting mission, but from a PR perspective, it was an avoidable own goal. Public relations were not Calderwood’s strong point and neither, plainly, were results. Few can argue with the decision of Petrie to act, but plenty can find fault with why he showed such faith in his under-achieving manager in the summer. If Calderwood had been allowed to go to either of the Midlands posts, everyone concerned would have been better off.

Petrie today finds himself in a familiar position of dusting down the job specification for the manager’s post. The chairman himself can start digging the club out of it with some contrition and evidence of ambition at the club’s agm tomorrow night, but actions will speak louder than words.

Taken from the Scotsman