Bristol Rovers director of football George Friend has explained that character was a significant factor in the recruitment process for a new manager or head coach after Rovers landed on Inigo Calderon.
The Spaniard was confirmed as the Gas’ new head coach on Boxing Day having spent 18 months in charge of Brighton and Hove Albion’s under-18s, where he had been a player for six years in League One and the Championship.
Taking charge of Rovers is Calderon’s first senior job in coaching having also been an assistant for Deportivo Alaves’ reserves but Friend insisted that he and the club’s board don’t see that as an issue.
“The board are very much about people with drive and that tends to be associated with more up and coming type coaches,” Friend explained to Bristol Live at Calderon’s first press conference on Friday. “The chairman isn’t particularly fussy about a serious extensive experience in management as you can see.
“But with the person and the character, we know that this is quite a special fanbase and the connection with the fanbase is important as well. Calde’s history of Brighton, he had one of the closest connections of any player to that Brighton fanbase.
“The journey with Brighton and their old stadium and that side of it marries quite well and the board were really keen for us to find that drive and passion and when we spoke to Calde he certainly had that.
“Then on the flip side they obviously have to have the tactical awareness and be astute on that side. He’s been coaching for six years but coached while he was playing as well. So I think it’s really important he connects with the players which he’d be able to do having worked with a lot of young players as well and players out in Spain.”
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Calderon began work on Friday having been announced as Rovers’ new boss 10 days after the club announced the sacking of Matt Taylor.
The 42-year-old will take charge of his first game on Sunday when the Gas travel to Stevenage with his maiden home match coming on New Year’s Day against Leyton Orient. That will then be followed by trips to Cambridge United and Premier League side Ipswich Town in the FA Cup third round.
It’s been a relatively swift process considering the festivities of this time of year with first-team coach Dave Horseman only having to take charge of two matches as interim boss with Friend confessing: “I’m not going to lie, it’s probably the hardest time to do something because Christmas is at everyone’s speed, however much they’re enjoying Christmas. But Brighton have been good in that sense and Calde’s obviously been excellent.
“He’s flown over and missed his own family Christmas so that shows his commitment to Rovers and, yeah, just delighted to get him in early before the influx of all other fixtures is really important because there’s a lot of games now and, although he won’t have the time on the grass, hopefully he’ll have the impact on the pitch on the Saturdays.”