Gough raves over the new wave of Ibrox Mexicans...
RICHARD GOUGH is hoping the Mexican wave will help sweep Rangers out of the pre-season doldrums.
Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera became Pedro Caixinha’s seventh and eighth signings of the summer.
And although neither South American could prevent the Ibrox club crashing out of the Europa League, Gough is convinced both will have vital parts to play when the new season kicks off in earnest next month.
Now living in San Diego, California – not far from the United StatesMexico border – the Nine in a Row skipper is able to watch a lot of Liga MX football and is excited to see how Pena and Herrera adapt to life at Ibrox.
Speaking at the Rangers Soccer School’s summer holiday course at the Ibrox Complex , he said: “I think it will be interesting, it’s roughly a whole new team again.
“We’ve got a difficult start with Motherwell away and Hibs and Hearts at home, so it’s a difficult start and you never get time to bed in at Rangers.
“I’m just looking forward to how everyone gels together; I’m actually looking forward to the Mexican boys.
“With me living in San Diego at the moment I’m very close to Mexico and by all accounts the two boys are good players.
“You don’t play for Mexico 20 times without being semi-decent.
“But it’s a completely different environment Scottish football, so I’ll be interested to see how the two Mexican boys get on.
“I’ll be looking at them with interest because the boy Herrera looks a lump of a boy and Pena looks like he can get goals from midfield which we have missed. He looks like he wants to get into the box.
“Friendly games can only go so far but then once you get out there with 50,000, that’s when you find out about players.
“But good players settle in, good players can play anywhere, so hopefully the boys are good enough to settle in.
“The problem with playing for Rangers is that you’ve got an expectation level here that is very very high.
“The two Mexican boys have played at clubs such as Chivas Guadalajara and that’s a big team, that’s like the Rangers of Mexico, so they’ll understand the pressures that are involved with playing for a big club.
“That’s why I’m hoping they will take to it quite easily.”