Ibrox boss happy to be in class of his own

PEDRO CAIXINHA was delighted to swap the chalk face of Rangers for the university classroom during the international break.

As SportTimes revealed last week, the Ibrox boss returned to his alma mater at the University of Lisbon to host a masterclass on football management.

The Ibrox gaffer hit the road to his homeland to deliver a series of lectures to students attending a special postgraduate course for football coaches devised by Professor Antonio Veloso and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.

Caixinha is the only other manager on the teaching staff with Mourinho, with the rest made up of the likes of former Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry and well-known scout Damien Comolli.

Caixinha said: “It is a course which started last season, and Jose Mourinho is in charge of it alongside the professor of the University.

“They provide a postgraduate on High Performance and Football Coaching, and they gather Portuguese coaches and people from around the world. So we go there to pass on our experiences with the clubs we have been.”

For years, Portugal has been providing some of the world’s best-known coaches, such as Mourinho, Andre Villas-Boas and Leonardo Jardim.

Caixinha added: “We have invested a lot in the education, and that comes from the relationship between the universities and the federation.

“I did my coaching badges here in Scotland, but I tried to mix what I learned in the academic side with what I learned on the coaching badge courses.

“I think the Portuguese are a little bit different in that respect as we have received continuous information and education on the coaches’ side on a regular basis, and I think that is very important for us.

“It is one of the reasons why, at the moment, we have six coaches in the Champions League – and that means a lot for us.”