Colin Calderwood in no hurry to start Hibs overhaul

Colin Calderwood is happy after making an initial assessment of his squad in his first ten days as manager of Hibernian and has no plans for a radical overhaul at Easter Road.

• Colin Calderwood says he has found his charges to be 'enthusiastic' since his arrivalPicture: SNS Group

The former Scotland defender succeeded John Hughes as Hibs boss, but could not prevent the slide continuing last Saturday as his first game in charge ended in a 4-2 Clydesdale Bank Premier League defeat at Aberdeen.

With 16 players out of contract at Hibs at the end of the season, Calderwood admits his squad are playing for their futures.

He described the budget he has been handed by Hibs chairman Rod Petrie as "absolutely perfect" and plans to scour the English leagues for talent.

Calderwood is happy with the early signs from his players, but his full assessment of the players with deals expiring next summer is a long way off.

"They're very enthusiastic, very open to what we're putting to them," said Calderwood. "I've got to fully understand what values they've got for us at the minute and we're nowhere near that yet."

Calderwood was born and brought up in Stranraer, but spent his entire playing career in England and went on to manage Northampton and Nottingham Forest before joining Hibs from Newcastle, where he was assistant to Chris Hughton.

And he sees many of his recruits arriving from south of the Border. "It's a market that is more familiar to me," said the 45-year-old former Tottenham and Aston Villa centre back. "The advantage of coming up here is it's top-level football, compared to a league or two below down there.

"But there are some good ones and we recruited good ones at the clubs I've been at before. I intend to make sure anybody that joins the club adds to the quality we've got here and is an influential signing."

Calderwood is yet to earmark players and said Hibs' transfer approach needs to be flexible.

"We've got to have knowledge of certain individuals, what qualities they have," he added.

"We should have it on a database, with a choice of four or five, understand their situations contractually and be able to move forward if possible."

Of more immediate concern to Calderwood is Hibs' ninth-place position in the SPL table.

Hibs have two wins and eight points from nine games ahead of this weekend's meeting with Dundee United at Tannadice.

And Calderwood will sacrifice attractive performances - in the short term at least - for accumulating points.

"We've got to make a move quickly, we've got to step forward," he said. "Sometimes we might have to scrap and take points that we don't deserve and that might be the foundation for us. We've got to improve results. If the foundation of that is points first and performance after, then we'll take it."