Pedro failed to turn a new leaf after his shrubbery shambles
THE start of the domestic season was still a full month away when the image that would come to define Pedro Caixinha’s disastrous tenure as Rangers manager emerged.
After being eliminated from the Europa League by Progres Niederkorn, the Portuguese faced scorn on the fourth of July as he stood in a bush outside the Stade Josy Barthel.
Just 24 hours earlier, Caixinha had eyed up the group stage, describing the prospect of defeat to the fourth-best team in Luxembourg — a team who had never won a European match — as ‘unthinkable’. But goals from Emmanuel Francoise and Sebastien Thill secured a 2-1 aggregate victory that saw Caixinha confronted by an angry mob on his way out of the stadium. Standing, mercifully, on the other side of a metal fence, Rangers fans chanted: ‘Out, out, out’ at the former Al-Gharafa and Santos Laguna boss. His players were deemed ‘not fit to wear the shirt’.
Just four months after hiring the littleknown former bullfighter, the Rangers board found themselves impaled on the horns of a dilemma.
By this point, their man had already overseen a record 5-1 Ibrox defeat against Celtic and lost to Aberdeen at home for the first time since 1991.
However, having bankrolled the 46-year-old to the tune of £8million for a summer rebuild, the hierarchy elected to stick by Caixinha in the wake of the club’s worst-ever result.
But the journey home from Luxembourg foreshadowed the splits that would eventually emerge in the Rangers squad as players sat in fragmented groups of Scots, Portuguese and Mexicans while silently waiting to board their flight to Glasgow.
Unexpectedly out of Europe, hastily arranged friendlies were organised against Marseille and Sheffield Wednesday. A 1-1 draw with the French giants and a 2-0 win at Hillsborough offered hope but, when the domestic season kicked off, question marks soon arose over Caixinha’s summer signings.
In particular, Carlos Pena struggled to justify his £2.5m fee, while Eduardo Herrera and Fabio Cardoso flattered to deceive. Barring a one-minute cameo against Hamilton last month, Portuguese winger Dalcio disappeared from view altogether.
Fingers were then pointed at Caixinha’s man-management when Michael O’Halloran revealed he only found out he had no future at Ibrox when he read it in the newspapers.
O’Halloran, deemed surplus to requirements, had been shunted on loan to St Johnstone, where he immediately shot to the top of the scoring charts and was named Premiership Player of the Month for August.
The winger had a further pop by claiming he did not feel fit after Caixinha’s training sessions and revealed he often pounded the pavements alone to get in shape.
Not long afterwards, the Ibrox boss was forced to defend ponderous Pena by claiming the Mexican was one of the top three fittest players at Rangers.
It was unconvincing, especially after the Mexican was clearly a spent force when he was replaced after 60 minutes against Celtic.
By that stage, Caixinha had confronted Scott Brown on the touchline at half-time over a perceived elbow on Alfredo Morelos when he might have been better served briefing his players.
The wheels were coming off and, in the wake of that Old Firm defeat, Caixinha allegedly criticised home-based players over a perceived failure to make newcomers more welcome at Ibrox.
After news of a stormy debrief made the papers, Kenny Miller was banished from the first team.
‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,’ said Caixinha, before packing Miller off to play with the Under-20s.
With Miller and his family then suffering abuse amid accusations he was ‘a rat’ and ‘a traitor’, the striker’s agent slammed Rangers’ treatment of the 37-year-old as ‘embarrassing’.
But, for all Caixinha’s bizarre quotes about clowns, elephants, dogs and caravans, results on the park were his undoing.
In 26 competitive matches, he could not rack up three consecutive victories. Most damningly, he lost almost every big match. The tipping point arrived last Sunday with the defeat to Motherwell in the semi-finals of the Betfred Cup.
After initially shouldering the blame for the loss, Caixinha performed a U-turn 24 hours later by insisting the players had embarrassed him, the club and themselves.
The writing was on the wall when injured captain Lee Wallace wanted to attend Wednesday night’s home draw against Kilmarnock but was told to stay away alongside Niko Kranjcar and Miller.
Just four days after Caixinha had claimed he was as addicted to winning as a vampire is to sucking blood, the Ibrox board put a metaphorical stake through his heart. He didn’t even make it to Hallowe’en. This time, there would be no shrubbery to hide behind.