He was the NINTH best boss in Qatar. Who really thought it would end well?
THE official website of the Al-Gharafa Sports Club should probably have been warning enough. Largely out of date, the ramshackle production is not unlike the kind which amateur players up and down the country forage each week for a glimpse at their league table.
Ranked beneath swimming, athletics, table tennis and basketball, the fortunes of the football branch of the operation seem to be far from the thoughts of the owners. The third item on a news feed is still running quotes from Pedro Caixinha after a victory over Umm Salal last December.
Dig a little deeper and there is nothing to suggest this first impression of a football backwater is in any way misleading. Despite offering extraordinary final paydays to the likes of Gabriel Batistuta and Pep Guardiola, and the murky securing of the 2022 World Cup, the Qatar Stars League is a virtual irrelevance in global terms.
More concerned with watching the English Premier equivalent, the two million population pays it next to no attention. So low were average attendances a few years back that the league stopped disclosing them.
So what drew the three-man Rangers delegation — Stewart Robertson, Graeme Park and Andrew Dickson — to the man who, in his first season in charge, led his team to a ninth-place finish? Even when they made their move in March, Caixinha’s side were a lowly fifth in the table, and it’s a question that has defied explanation to this day.
‘Sometimes it can happen quite quickly and you just think: “I like the cut of this guy’s jib”,’ explained managing director Robertson at Caixinha’s unveiling. ‘I can’t remember exactly how long into it, but certainly his passion came through right away and, hopefully, you’ve seen that here today.
‘It wasn’t minutes, it took a bit more than that, maybe half an hour or so. But you then have to back it up with your references and take independent views on him. We did a lot of that. We decided to have a conversation and see where it went from there. He (Pedro Mendes) is an intelligent guy whose football opinion you would respect. But that only gets you through the door, it doesn’t get you the rest of the way down the path.
‘I know that there has been a bit of criticism over how long it has taken us to do this. But the reality is that to take four weeks for what is the key job at the club, to get the right man, I don’t think is too long.’
Mendes, of course, is the former Rangers midfielder, who now acts as Caixinha’s agent. Yet what did the delegation expect him to say about his client? A stream of negativity?
Amid the mutual back-slapping for not just getting the right man but freeing him of his Al-Gharafa contract six weeks early, the official communication from the Qataris did not exactly suggest they were heartbroken at losing the man who had secured ninth position in his only full season.
‘The coach’s desire to exploit the opportunity to move to Rangers was stronger than our desire to continue,’ said a statement which amounted to a shrug of the shoulders.
Mendes’ trump card in getting the Ibrox delegation round the table initially would undoubtedly have been Caixinha’s two seasons in Mexico with Santos Laguna between 2013 and 2015.
These were the gold stars on the CV: three trophies won in a credible football environment. The 2014 Copa MX (the Mexican Cup) was without question a laudable achievement.
Suggestions he had won the league there the following year were somewhat generous, however. In finishing eighth in the Torneo Clausura (the second championship of the year) Santos scraped into an eight-team play-off which, credibly, they won.
Thus the reason his side subsequently played and defeated America (Torneo Apertura, the first championship winners) weeks later in the Campeon de Campeones. Which was all very well. But where else on the CV of the 46-year-old were the achievements which suggested he was a manager of real substance and promise? Hitching his wagon to that of Jose Peseiro for six years until 2010, Caixinha was assistant manager at Sporting Lisbon, Saudi side Al-Hilal, Panathinaikos, Rapid Bucharest and the Saudi national team before going out on his own at Uniao Leiria. A tenth-placed finish in 2011 preceded a move to rivals CD National, who he took to seventh before resigning with them second bottom of the league in the early weeks of the 2012-13 campaign. All considered, there was nothing in those pre-Santos Laguna years to suggest he was anything above average, let alone another Special One. None of the big three in his homeland — Porto, Sporting or Benfica — gave him as much as a sideways glance. Surely that should have been telling? T h e
logic behind discarding such clear, compelling evidence was all the harder to fathom considering there weren’t exactly a lack of viable alternatives closer to home.
Tommy Wright, the St Johnstone manager, was by then on the verge of leading the Perth men to a fourth successive top-six finish. He had already won the club’s only major trophy — the Scottish Cup. All on one of the smallest budgets in the Scottish Premiership.
Derek McInnes had re-established Aberdeen as a force to be reckoned with, pushing Celtic hard for the title and winning the 2014 League Cup. A former Rangers player, he seemed the outstanding candidate.
Both men were experienced figures with enviable track records in the Scottish game and had the required knowledge. Men who would certainly improve Rangers. But, perplexingly, no phone call came their way.
Only the three-man delegation will know the reasons why but perhaps their familiarity worked against them.
If the question posed of them was whether either would have won the title for Rangers this season (answer: almost certainly not) then the fault lay with their starting point.
Asking if each man would take the club forward — the correct hypothesis at this point in time — may have brought a different course of action.
In the end, Caixinha’s considerable charm and Rangers’ hope of landing a hitherto hidden talent capable of usurping Celtic won the day. There was always that chance in a million that he might bridge the chasm separating the Glasgow giants but the strong likelihood was always he’d be a short-lived experiment. Sometimes accepting where you are is more prudent than dreaming about where you would want to be.
Caixinha, then, takes his leave after 26 games, having failed to win three on the bounce, with myriad humiliations among them. But the impact of his reign will be felt for some time to come.
In buying into his vision lock, stock and barrel, the Portuguese was indulged by the board to the tune of £8million in the summer.
Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera arrived at huge expense from Mexico and have been empty jerseys. Dalcio arrived on loan from Benfica and has rarely been spotted. Neither of his Portuguese compatriots, Bruno Alves and Fabio Cardoso, have set the heather alight, either.
Even the Scottish recruits — Graham Dorrans and Ryan Jack — have not lived up to expectations.
Most are on lucrative multi-year deals, a scenario which will see the next incumbent begin work with one hand tied behind his back.
What a mess he will inherit. A hotchpotch of highly-remunerated underachievers and malcontents whose response to losing to the fourth-best side in Luxembourg back in July was to slide to fourth place in the Scottish Premiership in late October.
Just don’t say that no one saw it coming.