Cruz Azul chief insists club has not agreed to pay Pena salary in full as part of loan deal
Cruz Azul’s sporting director Eduardo de la Torre has played down claims the Mexican side are paying Carlos Pena’s wages in full.
Rangers said on their website earlier this week that Pedro Caixinha’s new side had agreed to pay all of Pena’s £20,000-a-week salary following his arrival on a year-long loan deal from Rangers.
But de la Torre told a press conference that this wasn’t the case. “Regarding the salary, the official figures are far from what you have said,” de la Torre told Mexican media.
“Carlos is coming for a year on loan. We do have a [purchase] option at the end of the year,” he confirmed.
Pena’s move to the Mexican top-flight side sees him reunited with his former manager at Ibrox. A £2.2 million arrival from Guadalajara during the summer of 2017, Pena struggled for form at Rangers despite netting five goals for the club. He fell out of favour following Caixinha’s sacking and failed to consistently make the team under then interim boss Graeme Murty.
Meanwhile, Andy Halliday has said he knew his loan switch to Gabala was a mistake after just one week in Azerbaijan. The Rangers midfielder was played out of position in defence, struggled with the language barrier and was prevented from cutting his time at the club short.
And he told Rangerstv that he was ‘delighted to be back’ at the club after Murty’s appointment as manager paved the way for a return.
“It was unfortunate that I had to leave in the first place but I have known for a few weeks that there was going to be an opportunity to come back,” said Halliday.
“I don’t know too much what to say about my time in Azerbaijan, I knew after a week it was a mistake, there was a lot of stuff I wasn’t aware of before I went there.”
The midfielder insisted he had tried to leave Gabala after a week but the club blocked his exit.
“It has been a difficult few months but I am very very happy I am back. It was very difficult there, the lack of English is difficult and the lack of understanding Scottish as well was hard,” Halliday joked.
The 26-year-old admitted it was tough without any family with him, explaining that his girlfriend’s full-time job meant she was unable to visit him in the South Caucasus. “I was just very lucky that there were a couple of Dutch boys [Dion Malone and Dave Bulthuis] who spoke English and were in a similar situation to me, so I latched onto them for six months,” Halliday said.
He was also asked to play in central defence on three occasions, adding: “A couple of [the centre halves] were injured so I played there and managed to keep three clean sheets.
“I actually played centre-half against Motherwell last season and kept a clean sheet that day too – I might need to start a new career.”