Shaun Maloney appointed Hibernian manager with Gary Caldwell assistant

Shaun Maloney has been appointed Hibernian manager on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Maloney's first game in charge will be the Scottish Premiership visit of Aberdeen on Wednesday.

And he will be assisted by his former team-mate Gary Caldwell, who leaves his post at Manchester City's academy.

Caldwell, 39, played at Hibs before joining Celtic and later managed Wigan, Chesterfield and Partick Thistle.

David Gray, 33, took interim charge of Hibernian for three games, including Sunday's Scottish League Cup final defeat by Celtic. Hibs are seventh in the Premiership, a point behind Aberdeen.

Gray will remain as part of the backroom team along with goalkeeping coach Craig Samson.

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"Shaun's a young coach and this is a big opportunity for him to show what we can do," Hibs chief executive Ben Kensell said. "We will support him in the upcoming transfer windows to help him achieve our ambitions here.

"We have real belief in Shaun, and he has huge belief in himself. He is determined to bring success here at Hibernian FC."

Maloney started his playing career at Celtic and returned to the club after 18 months at Aston Villa before spells with Wigan, Chicago and Hull. He was capped 47 times, scoring seven Scotland goals.

He moved into coaching with Celtic's under-20s in 2017 and joined the Belgium set-up the following year as assistant to Roberto Martinez.

'A bit left-field' - analysis

Former Hibernian manager John Hughes

He's a quiet kind of guy, but he's a football guy. But you need that personality and if it's not you that's doing that you need a number two that can laugh at himself, get a bit of fun, and knows the game and is a good coach. If it is Shaun Maloney, his number two will be important.

Former Dundee and St Mirren striker Rory Loy

It's very in-keeping with the route that a lot of clubs are going down these days, young managers going in with different ideas potentially, their own philosophy on the way they want to play the game.

It's a bit left-field given he has no real experience in management. It's easy to talk well about tactics and analyse the game but to go into managing a squad of 25 people by himself would be a bit of an eye-opener for him.