Gary Caldwell: New Exeter City manager targets 'top end' of League One

Gary Caldwell says his ambition is to see Exeter City competing at the "top end" of League One after being named the club's manager.

He inherits a side who are eighth in League One - closing in on the best league position in the club's history.

"It is a big challenge, but I've never been afraid of challenge in my career and it's a challenge I look forward to," Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon.

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"I want to take the team further, I believe that is possible over time.

"We have to work extremely hard on the training pitch to develop the team that we have.

"We have to try and improve the team at every opportunity in transfer windows and grow over time to have a team that is capable of competing at the top end of this league."

Caldwell is the highest-profile manager Exeter have appointed since they were taken over by the club's supporters' trust in 2003.

Since then the club has battled financial issues and won promotion out of what is now the National League and on to League One, before spending a decade in the fourth tier until this summer.

Caldwell's experience managing Wigan Athletic to the 2016 League One title and at clubs such as Patrick Thistle and Chesterfield, as well as winning the FA Cup and Scottish titles along with more than 50 Scotland caps as a player, dwarfs the CVs that predecessors Paul Tisdale and Matt Taylor had when they took the job.

"When you look back to where we've come from, £4.8m in debt to today when we're putting up new buildings at the training ground, that is light years, that's a huge difference," Exeter president Julian Tagg, who was one of the fans who led the takeover almost two decades ago, told BBC Radio Devon.

"This is a manager that can do something in this league and take us on to the next one.

"Things have changed as we go through, we're in this league, we want to stay in this league and we want to progress further.

"That is going to take time, as I think everybody would recognise."

'I will give it everything I've got'

Caldwell could not have asked for a more difficult start to his time in Devon - a trip away to newly relegated Derby County on Tuesday before travelling to league leaders, and Exeter's bitter rivals, Plymouth Argyle for the first Devon derby in three years next Monday.

"Now is the real challenge of League One," Caldwell said.

"I think it's important we go and embrace that, we go with everything we've got to compete with these teams, and after these next six games we'll have a real idea where this season could go," he added.

"I will give it everything I've got to get success for this football club.

"They hear the Scottish accent, they will have that Scottish passion and commitment from the sidelines, but for me it's more about what they see on the pitch.

"I am here to help the players, support the players to be the best they can be."