Tough guy is still to back up his big talk
PEDRO CAIxInHA should keep the receipt for that new cycle. Aberdeen’s first Ibrox win in 26 years suggests it needs a bit of work.
The tyres are bare, the brakes are screeching and the chain is hanging off. And the man in the saddle might need the skills of Graeme Obree to strip it down and fit new parts.
The Rangers boss fuelled an entertaining row with Aberdeen rival Derek McInnes when he suggested the recent cycle of success at Pittodrie is about to fall off a cliff. His words drew a response. McInnes said Caixinha should be ‘embarrassed’ by finishing third in the Premiership with the budget available to Rangers.
Apply sober logic to this and there is actually no reason the Ibrox boss should feel much embarrassment at all.
This isn’t his team. Rangers have reaped the barren harvest of Mark Warburton’s pitiful crop of players and hammering Caixinha for finishing third is like bombing Iraq as payback for 9/11. He’s the wrong target.
Yet the McInnes reaction justified the headlines because, in Scottish football, this stuff rarely happens.
Whatever managers think of each other privately — and there is no love lost — they rarely venture onto enemy territory to drop one.
It’s considered poor form to comment on the other team unless it is done respectfully. Football management in Scotland comes with an unwritten etiquette guide.
WHEn push comes to shove, football is no different to any other industry. new boys and outsiders are expected to serve their time quietly at the back of the room, playing the game and nodding respectfully to the old hands.
But Caixinha has driven a coach and horses through all this. Like a bullfighter brandishing a red rag in the face of Scottish football, he is taking on all-comers.
Some of the reaction to this has sailed dangerously close to asking who this uppity foreigner thinks he is?
Charlie nicholas walked a thin line on Sky Sports when he said of Rangers and Caixinha: ‘They’re lucky to be third. They’ve a manager that’s walked in and thinks he owns our country, telling everybody what to do.’
But Portuguese managers noising up the opposition is hardly a new phenomenon in the British game.
Jose Mourinho has been at it for years.
Let’s be honest, the game needs a good barney now and then. Bland, magnolia managers with nothing to say are ten-a-penny in the SPFL.
Interesting, opinionated characters willing to shatter the established order make the job of journalists a hell of a lot easier. For that reason, it’s a bit rich to have a go at anyone adding a splash of colour to the national game.
But a neat turn of phrase and strong opinions should never insulate a manager from legitimate scrutiny of his tactics, his team selections or his results.
And so far Caixinha’s record of five wins in ten games is underwhelming.
neil Lennon, another SPFL manager prone to turning the machine gun on others, described it as ‘average at best’.
Study the players Caixinha inherited and that is not terribly surprising. He deserves a chance to bring in his own players. He needs a window or two to make Rangers his team.
The signs are he will take Aberdeen captain Ryan Jack on a free. Portuguese international Bruno Alves is coming as well and that should give the team an injection of backbone.
But the team is only part of the cycle. Tactically, Caixinha has been found wanting.
His side were overwhelmed by Celtic twice in a week after he persisted with a narrow midfield diamond which allowed Brendan Rodgers’ men the run of the wide areas. It took a goalkeeping error to beat ten-man Hearts at home after a porous midfield display.
And a needless spat with McInnes only succeeded in firing up Aberdeen for their first Ibrox win since 1991.
It’s early days but Caixinha has left himself little margin for error next season. He has to hit the ground running.
It’s not enough for a manager to talk the talk. Sooner or later he has to walk the walk.