Mogga was born to boss the Bhoys

GARY CALDWELL knew five years ago Tony Mowbray would be Celtic boss - just days into his first job at Hibs!

When Mogga replaced Bobby Williamson in the Easter Road hotseat in May 2004, the rookie boss's first priority was to seek out stopper Caldwell and convince him he was the real deal.

Half an hour later, the Scotland defender wasn't just willing to turn his back on a career-changing move to Holland to play for Mowbray, he was willing to wager his new gaffer would go on to manage the Hoops one day.

Caldwell, 27, was considering an offer from Vitesse Arnhem and was set to quit Hibs when he met Mogga for the first time in 2004.

Now he can't wait to be re-united at Celtic with the boss who turned his career on its head and trusted him enough to make him his captain at Easter Road.

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He said: "I realised five years ago that Tony Mowbray would go on to manage Celtic one day.

"The first time he outlined his football philosophy and how he loved to play an attractive, passing game with the emphasis on attack, I was hooked.

"He spoke so passionately I could sense his values were perfectly suited to Hibs, and his old club Celtic. He impressed me from day one and, within five minutes of meeting him, I knew I wanted to play for him. If it wasn't for Tony Mowbray I'd probably be playing in Holland right now.

"I was out of contract at Hibs in May 2004 and talks on a new deal had stalled. I'd been out to Vitesse Arnhem to train for a week with them and there's every chance I would have moved to Holland in search of a new challenge.

"I had become disillusioned with the problems over my Easter Road contract and felt it might be the right time to try something new.

"Then Hibs appointed Tony as the club's new manager and everything changed for me.

"One of the first things he did was to turn up at Easter Road for Scotland's end-of-season friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.

"We won 4-1 and I scored my first international goal that afternoon. Afterwards Tony spoke to me and made it clear he wanted me to sign for him and play a big part in his plans for Hibs.

"He knew all about my contract situation and that I was on the verge of leaving. But he just said: 'I know what you can do Gary and I need you here at Hibs. You are important to my plans'.

"Then he set out exactly what he wanted to do at the club and his philosophy on the game and how he saw me fitting into his vision of the Hibs side he wanted to create.

"He was impressive from the start and, within five minutes, I knew I was going to sign for Hibs because I already knew I wanted to play for him.

"He just had this aura about him, I'd only just met the guy yet I was already hooked.

"It was his first managerial job but he had a presence about him and a stature that told you he was going to become a big success in the job."

It didn't take Mogga long on the training pitch to convince Caldwell he was going to love life under Mowbray's new regime.

He added: "You could see from the start his style of football was exactly how fans love to see their team play.

"Tony has made it clear he doesn't intend to change his football philosophy and he's right not to, because his teams are good to play in and they are good to watch.

"I had two good years with him at Hibs and we played some of the best football I've ever had the pleasure to be involved in.

"We may not have won a trophy in those two years, but we won plenty of plaudits and admirers for the football we played.

"But that's something Tony will already realise he can't get away with at Celtic. As a former Celt he knows, as I quickly discovered at Parkhead, you need to play well and win trophies.

"I discovered the hard way there is no point in playing great football, then undoing all your good work with one mistake which causes a goal.

"But unlike Hibs, he will have the resources at Celtic to put together a winning team that can deliver the trophies that supporters expect and demand.

"We have good players here and Tony will improve every one of them because he makes you want to play for him.

"He is a great motivator. I remember one of the first little speeches he made to us at Hibs was how he wanted to see us work hard to achieve the big rewards on offer to the top players in the game. He said he wanted to see us driving Ferraris and Porsches one day because it would mean we had been successful.

"He gets inside your head and leaves simple little messages which inspire you and make you focus on the job in hand.

"The point he was making to us was that there are big rewards out there for those who are hungry enough to go and grab them.

"Now he can look at that Hibs team and see Scott Brown earning a £4million move to Celtic, while Steven Whittaker and Kevin Thomson are both at Rangers.

"That's three of his old team playing at a high level for club and country and it will please him that we've shown the desire he was talking about."

Mowbray has never been able to hide his own desire and passion for the game and Caldwell says he can recall the exact night he first began to convince the Parkhead powerbrokers he might be a future Celtic boss in the making.

He said: "I'd seen Tony Mowbray as a potential Celtic manager right from the start. But I remember hearing his speech at the 2005 Scottish Football Writers' awards dinner, when he was voted Scotland's Manager of the Year in his first season. I really believe that's when everyone realised he was a top, top manager destined for big things.

"As always, Tony spoke from the heart. He told a packed room of his beliefs on the game, about the desire he had to make it in football from a young age, about his influences.

"He told everyone how he had always had a burning desire to work hard on his game and improve himself.

"He revealed that when he was a player at Ipswich he would regularly travel to London to watch Arsenal play to see what little points he could pick up from them.

"Then he would take pages of notes and assess why they were so good at what they did, how he loved the way they passed the ball and moved into space.

"He also spoke, about the tragedy he had been through when he lost his first wife Bernadette and how he had remained close with her family.

"It was really moving stuff and he impressed everyone in the room that day with his honesty, dignity and humility.

"At the end of his speech he received a standing ovation and I don't think there was anyone there who did not believe they had just heard a class manager who was going to get where he wanted in football quickly. You could see he meant business and intended to get to the top in management at an early age - just as he had made it clear he had loved his time as a player with Celtic.

"Everyone I spoke to afterwards said how impressive he was that night. Now he's manager of Celtic at 45."

Caldwell realises his new gaffer wasn't everyone's first choice at Celtic and that some fans may worry about the fact his West Brom side was the only newly-promoted club who couldn't hack it in the Premiership.

He added: "Knowing Tony the way I do I would tell those fans he has proved himself to be a good manager at Hibs with limited resources. Then he showed he could handle himself in England by winning the Championship with West Brom.

"Even last season he won plenty of plaudits with the style of football West Brom played, even though they were relegated.

"It will have hurt Tony to have been relegated and he will be desperate to show that was just a blip on his managerial record.

"Hopefully he will have a few years here at Celtic to put that experience firmly behind him and enjoy a long period of success here to prove any doubters wrong."

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