Birmingham step up their efforts to lure Colin Calderwood

HIBERNIAN are believed to be negotiating a compensation fee with Birmingham City, who want to install Colin Calderwood as assistant manager at St Andrew's.

It was reported yesterday that Birmingham had made a formal approach to speak to Calderwood, who was only appointed Hibs manager in October last year. Hibs chairman Rod Petrie has been asked to clarify what compensation clauses there may be in his contract as Birmingham manager Chris Hughton steps nearer to being reunited with Calderwood, who was his assistant at Newcastle United.

Should Calderwood move south, it puts former Hibs player Andy Watson's position at Birmingham in doubt. The assistant manager has remained with Birmingham despite Alex McLeish's move across the city to take over at Aston Villa. The pair have worked in tandem since their time together at Motherwell but it is believed Watson has expressed his wish to remain with Birmingham, who also signed one-time Hibs target Adam Rooney yesterday. The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle striker was a free agent and agreed a two-year deal with the English Championship side.

Calderwood's future remains less clear-cut but he admitted on Friday that an approach from Birmingham would leave him with a "hard choice" to consider. It is no surprise that Hughton has come calling for Calderwood, with whom he became friends during their time together at Tottenham Hotspur. Should Calderwood decide to leave Easter Road after only eight months in charge it will mean he is content to make a step back into the assistant manager's role. According to John Blackley, it is a decision which could define the rest of the 46 year-old's career. Blackley is a former Hibs manager who subsequently carved out a career assisting, among others, Paul Sturrock. As Calderwood looks to be edging out of the Easter Road door, Blackley is a relevant reference point. His time at Hibs saw him reach one conclusion - he preferred to be an assistant. It wasn't the fault of the club, for whom Blackley also played over 250 games. The former defender simply felt more comfortable away from the spotlight.

"A certain type wants to be a No 1, but I felt it was not for me," said Blackley yesterday. "Maybe Colin Calderwood feels the same way. I would rather have been without the hassle of dealing with directors and press on a daily basis."

Blackley resigned as manager of Hibs in November 1986, just two years after he was appointed to replace Pat Stanton, who he had previously assisted. The opportunity had fallen into Blackley's lap after Stanton walked away: "They (Hibs] asked: 'do you want the job? It's yours if you want it'. After taking it I found that I didn't really fancy it."

Save for a period in charge at Cowdenbeath and spells spent as a caretaker manager at various clubs he has not worked as a front-line manager since he left Easter Road. He had formulated the view that he didn't relish the non-football-orientated chores of a manager. He preferred to be on the training ground, working in tandem with someone more willing to take on the additional duties of manager. For a long time it was Sturrock, who Blackley shadowed at St Johnstone, Dundee United, Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Wednesday and Swindon Town. Presently it is Stirling Albion's Jocky Scott who is benefiting from Blackley's expertise.

"If I was offered a management job now, I certainly wouldn't take it," he said. Blackley contends that Calderwood - should he accept Birmingham's offer and agree to join up again with Hughton - will be making a more profound choice than simply swapping one club for another. He will be making a career statement, one which suggests he wishes to continue carving a niche as an assistant manager.

It is surprising, given that he has already experienced both the joys and stresses of being a manager at Nottingham Forest and Northampton, and appeared to relish the pressure. Indeed on his unveiling at Easter Road last October he admitted he had never been satisfied in the role of assistant manager. "The spell as a number two at Newcastle did help me but it was always in my head to be a manager in my own right again," Calderwood said. Just eight months later, he seems to have had a serious re-think. "I think if he goes back to being an assistant again now, he is more or less saying that is what he wants to be," said Blackley. "He is happy to be an assistant. It would be hard for him to break out of that mould again."

Hibs are still the club whose results Blackley looks for first, but he can understand the lure of either Birmingham or Nottingham Forest, the other club who have tried to tempt Calderwood away from Hibs with the offer of a No 2 berth. "They are both huge football clubs, with big fan bases," he said. "And they are both hopeful they can return to the Premier League."

Blackley knows it will be tough for Hibs to compete with the financial might of Birmingham and Forest. It seems Calderwood's actions could speak louder than those words he uttered at Easter Road late last year, when management had appeared to seem such an appealing proposition for him.