Calderwood happy at Cobblers and plans to have 'conversation' over club's 'structure' at the end of the season

Cobblers assistant manager Colin Calderwood is still very much ‘enjoying’ his role at Sixfields and says there will be a ‘conversation’ at the end of the season regarding the club’s behind-the-scenes structure.

The former promotion-winning boss, who played 36 times for Scotland in the 1990s, returned to Northampton in the summer of 2021 when named assistant manager following the permanent appointment of Jon Brady.

The two have formed an effective partnership in the dugout but other clubs have tried to lure Calderwood away in the last 18 months, most notably Championship side Swansea City after Town’s play-off hopes were dashed by Mansfield last May.

But the 58-year-old Scot was keen to stay at Sixfields, especially after he took on a more prominent role regarding the club’s recruitment structure.

"There are always approaches for coaches and managers during a season and people I have worked with in the past have asked that question to me,” said Calderwood speaking on the Cobblers Show on BBC Radio Northampton.

"But the timing was definitely not right and I'm very comfortable in the role I'm doing and I am enjoying it here. The difference with the first time I was here is that I now understand the community and the supporters better and I also have family here.

"I'm doing the technical director course with the FA and we will have a conversation at the end of the season in terms of how the structure of the club will look. The intention is to finish that course and then sit down and have a chat, but I'm really comfortable with how it all sits at the moment."

Cobblers tweaked the way in which they scout and sign players following Martin Foyle’s departure as head of recruitment at the end of 2021, and Calderwood was a big part of that.

He added: "I'm very comfortable with how Kelvin (Thomas) and James (Whiting) and Jon have put the position in place for me. I'm obviously the assistant coach but I have experience so I feel I can lend a helping hand.

"When Martin Foyle left, there was an opportunity to really step into that fold and what we did was restructure how the scouting worked. For a number of years, the club had a chief scout and used his contacts with whoever the manager or assistant manager was at the time, and that has worked very well in the past.

"But when that manager or chief scout leaves, you are left with none of their knowledge and none of their experience and no database, so we have restructured that.

"We have gone back to having as many regional scouts as possible and they have a good link with either Jon or myself or someone within the club. They go out to games at different levels and that gives us a varied range.

"The structure we have now and the library of players we have now is better for the club and we hope to keep improving that and I think the players who have come in have done well.

"It's been a strategic plan to think about what players will look like in 18 months rather than eight games and that's why those young players we have signed would have been a high priority – but they need to have talent as well and attitude and application.”