ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER, PEDRO

Caixinha’s tough talk needs to be backed up on the field of play

AS an accomplished bullfighter, Pedro Caixinha needs no one to tell him of the havoc the beasts can wreak when let loose. Rarely are they a good fit for a china shop.

Since coming to Scotland, though, the Portuguese looks perfectly capable of making an ear-splitting commotion all on his own.

While it would be harsh to draw too many conclusions from a tenure that’s just ten games old, this much can be said with certainty: The man from Beja is no loss to the diplomatic corps.

As affable as the 46-year-old is in person, he seems to care not one jot as to how his statements are taken by his peers.

In one sense, you can only commend him for this stance. For too long, Scottish football has been dragged down by blandness and those saying only what others want to hear.

But here’s the rub; Caixinha is a man in a foreign land. One who is in charge of a side coming to the end of a desperately disappointing campaign.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of his simmering feud with Derek McInnes, none of it deflects from the fact that his team are a point further behind Aberdeen than when he took the reins.

Bold, self-assured statements of intent have been part of the managerial game since time immemorial. The unwritten rule is that they are best kept for when the times are good.

This is surely the crux of the matter — not who did or did not partake in a glass of wine in the manager’s office at Pittodrie last month. But that many words to have crossed Caixinha’s lips since coming to Scotland would have been better left unsaid.

Rewind to the middle of March and, as he met the media for the first time, it was clear that he was not going to be a man to hide his light under a bushel.

‘This is the squad we have for now and we really trust the players we have right now,’ he insisted. ‘For us, this is the best squad in Scotland.’

If a Celtic squad then two weeks away from winning the title were entitled to take umbrage with that, the eight-point gap which separated Rangers from Aberdeen at that point would not have gone unnoticed at Pittodrie, either.

If McInnes had intended on giving the Portuguese both barrels at the first available opportunity, a 3-0 home defeat to Rangers on April 9 forced him to keep his powder dry.

There would also be no scope to address the matter in private. The Aberdeen manager claimed his normal media duties prevented him from hosting Caixinha in his office post-match. Evidently, the Rangers boss saw it differently.

The intervening weeks brought more of the same bullish narrative from the former Al-Gharafa manager. Rangers would ‘challenge to win’ the title next season after he’d had his way in the transfer market, he claimed.

Positivity is one thing. Arguably even essential. But wouldn’t it have been more prudent for Caixinha to talk of first usurping an Aberdeen side closing in on a third straight second-placed finish? Such fearless predictions of success seemed incongruous amid unconvincing results and performances, including becoming the first Rangers team in history to ship five goals at home to Celtic. This week, however, the Portuguese struck a match and held it under the touch-paper. Instead of taking a straight bat to reports linking him with Dons skipper Ryan Jack — the way he dealt with speculation concerning other players last week — Caixinha took the ball and ran with it.

Had he stopped at that, the matter might just have blown over. But his subsequent remarks were the equivalent of pouring a can of petrol on to the barbecue.

‘Teams have cycles. Teams have good cycles, three years or four years that they are doing good, but I believe they (Aberdeen) need to change something,’ he stated.

The inference was totally unmistakable. Aberdeen were on the way down. Rangers would meet them on the way up.

With a 26-year hoodoo weighing on his shoulders, McInnes surely must have been tempted to bite his lip. But, for all he can be overly cautious at times, the Aberdeen manager has never shied away from saying something he feels needs to be said.

‘I find it strange that the Rangers manager feels the need to talk about other clubs so much,’ McInnes responded.

‘If he thinks that doing brilliant at Rangers is by finishing ahead of Aberdeen, then he is clearly mistaken.

‘His job as Rangers manager is to finish above Celtic and he should be more concerned by that challenge. He shouldn’t be talking about our players, but each to their own.

‘Any team that finishes above Rangers in the league, with the budget they have, is doing their work well. They should probably be embarrassed that they’ve not finished second.

‘I think any Premiership manager, with the budget Rangers have had to work with, would finish second in the league.

‘I think he likes to do a lot of talking. I think the Rangers fans over the last few years have been used to owners, managers, players saying what they want to hear.

‘But the reality is his job as Rangers manager is to finish above Celtic and, if he thinks he is doing well by finishing above Aberdeen and the rest, then he’ll soon find out that’s not enough.’

Fellow managers are usually loath to enter fights that don’t concern them, but it was clear that Caixinha’s remarks — coupled with indifferent results and performances — hadn’t gone unnoticed elsewhere.

‘I think he has been average to say the least,’ said Hibernian manager Neil Lennon.

‘He talks great in front of the cameras, looks great.

‘We all talk a great game about tactics and formations and this, that and the other thing, but it’s a results-driven business.

‘I don’t think there has been any improvement since (Mark) Warburton left.’

Time and the forthcoming transfer window will tell who enjoys the last laugh, of course. But on the evidence of what transpired at Ibrox on Wednesday night, it may be quite some time before the grimace disappears from Caixinha’s face.

Frankly, thus far, there has been little to suggest he is the panacea to every ill.

Long before a painful final home match for his side drew to a close, the stadium was almost empty, except for the pocket of jubilant visiting fans.

As the light blue hordes made their way out of Ibrox to their cars, word of their manager claiming a lack of respect from his opposite number would simply have washed over them.

Another circus of a season scarcely needs another sideshow.