When Iñigo Calderón was appointed Bristol Rovers head coach on Boxing Day last year, his memories of the Memorial Stadium soon came flooding back. He played there once in the third tier for Brighton, the club where he became a cult hero, but his first visit had stuck in his mind. It was November 2009, while he was hunting for a club after exiting Alavés of his native Basque Country, and after trials with Gillingham, Norwich and Swansea, Southampton’s visit to Rovers in the FA Cup was next on his itinerary. “I stayed in a bed and breakfast round the corner, on Gloucester Road,” he says, smiling. “The last thing I was thinking then was: ‘I could coach here.’ It was kind of romantic when I came back.”
Calderón is back in League One, this time fighting relegation from the sidelines. When he signed for Brighton in January 2010, they were 20th in the division, above the drop zone on goal difference, but finished in mid-table. How Calderón would settle for a repeat, with Rovers 20th before Saturday’s trip to struggling Crawley after a 5-0 loss at Lincoln last weekend. He references that defeat when discussing how he implements on a daily basis his master’s in sports psychology, which he achieved after completing a sports science degree during his playing career. “Five-nil, it was a disaster, but at the same time you have to put yourself in the players’ shoes. The easy thing to do would be to shout: ‘Disgrace, disgrace!’ But it was not that long ago I was a player and as a player you are the first one to know it wasn’t good enough. I love emotional intelligence.”
