No decision on players’ futures...yet
RANGERS manager Pedro Caixinha has pledged his players’ jobs won’t be on the over the next week.
After this afternoon’s semi-final, the Light Blues face Celtic again in the Premiership on Saturday.
With Kenny Miller among several first-team regulars still waiting to hear whether he will be offered a deal for next season, the games had been viewed as something of a Last Chance Saloon for them.
The Portuguese, however, insists that is not the case.
“Winning this match coming up, and then the next one, will have nothing to do with my decisions about the future,” he said. “Nothing. “What this match means is that it’s a semi-final and by winning it we will be in a final. Being in that final would allow us the chance to win a trophy.
“But it’s about the moment. Nothing else before it or after it.
“In terms of interest (from Portugal), this is definitely the biggest game I have ever been involved in, bigger than in Mexico, where we had a lot, semi-finals, even the finals, when we were champions.”
It is a single-mindedness which has Caixinha keen not to be distracted by the media focus on the opposition.
“First of all, my respect for Brendan Rodgers. He is a great coach with a fantastic position,” he said.
“I don’t want to compare even the trophies that he won and I won before I arrived here.
“But I’m not caring about stopping the Treble, something everybody is talking about.
“If I’m caring about stopping the Treble, then it means I don’t care about winning a trophy.
“I want to win this semi-final on Sunday to make sure we get to the final – and then win the trophy.
“I don’t care what the other team is thinking. They have their own ambitions. That is quite normal.
“If I was in their position, then I’d do the same.
“They have their own aims. And maybe that’s what makes this game so special for both teams.
“But if you do a great performance, if you win, then the other things will come with it.
“I believe in that.”