THAT’S SIMPLY THE WORST
Even after shocking loss in Luxembourg, Caixinha insists he’s still the man to rebuild Rangers
PEDRO CAIXINHA insisted he is still the right man to rebuild Rangers despite his new-look team suffering the worst result in the club’s European history.
The Portuguese watched in horror as two second-half goals from Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn saw his Ibrox side crash out of the Europa League at the first qualifying round.
And he was forced to address furious travelling fans who rounded on the manager and his players as they boarded the team bus following their humiliation.
Despite leading by Kenny Miller’s goal from the first leg, Rangers still contrived to lose to a team who finished fourth in Luxembourg’s league last season and had never won a European match in 13 attempts.
Caixinha conceded his reputation had been damaged by the worst result in his managerial career, but promised he would recover. Asked if he was the right man to take the club forward, he replied: ‘Yes, of
course. If I was not showing strength to move the things forward, then I couldn’t be in this chair. So I’m strongly convinced I can do it, I’m strongly convinced I have the group to do it and I believe I need to be here to take the group forward. ‘I know coming to a massive club like this that, when these things happen, I am the one who is going to be on the front line. ‘I respect that, but I will keep doing my job going forward. But, yes, it is totally the worst result of my managerial career.’ Caixinha, who had previously declared defeat would be ‘unthinkable’, was lost for words to explain why his side contrived to surrender their advantage. ‘The unthinkable happened,’ he added. ‘It is something that only happens once in a lifetime. ‘I accept all the responsibility for what happened. ‘I don’t have the answers as to why the players didn’t perform. I told the players at half-time that we were not respecting the opponent. You cannot afford to do that. ‘We allowed them to start believing and they realised they could harm us. ‘We conceded silly set-pieces which led to both goals. ‘I’m not going to talk about the chances we had or the times we hit the woodwork. They scored two goals and that’s all that counts.’ Pressed on whether he felt too many of his players had already believed they were through, Caixinha replied: ‘No, because I’m a guy that always sees things forward in bad moments. ‘You see the right people and I know the group of players I have. I know I can count on them. ‘We are building something. This hasn’t gone as we’d hoped. ‘Again, I assume all the responsibility that we haven’t got through this qualifier. Trying to get to the group stage was our main goal. But I know this group is going to be on the top again and is going to build very good things for the club.’ Around 2,000 Rangers fans were in attendance at last night’s game, with many of them barracking the players as they traipsed onto the bus. Caixinha, who spoke with some of them as they booed his players, said: ‘One word for the fans. They are the only ones that never deserve this sort of thing. ‘They need to be angry at this moment and we understand they are angry, but we ask them to keep believing in the team and to have loyalty because the team will come good. ‘It is always a setback being out in this qualifier knowing that you are better than the opponent. ‘We did everything to get the result and it might happen once in a lifetime. ‘It has happened to us, but we have to keep moving forward.’ Meanwhile, Caixinha is poised to make Graham Dorrans his ninth summer signing after Rangers yesterday agreed a fee with Norwich City. The boyhood Rangers fan is poised to undergo a medical, with confirmation of his signing expected within 48 hours. ‘It looks like it is going to go through,’ confirmed Caixinha. ‘We hope to have confirmation in the next days.’ While Dorrans travelled north yesterday, Barrie McKay was going in the opposite direction to finalise his £500,000 switch to Nottingham Forest. As Sportsmail first revealed, former Rangers manager Mark Warburton was determined to take the player to the City Ground.