Deja-vu

[five stars 1,621]

From the Herald

Pedro Caixinha hung out to dry after Kenny Miller leads Scots’ mutiny

James MorganDeputy Sports Editor

When Pedro Caixinha fell out with Kenny Miller, some players remained loyal to the Scot.

PEDRO Caixinha knew his days at Rangers were numbered from early on in his reign.

Keen to establish a new, progressive, European-style culture at the club, the Portuguese coach, who was sacked on Thursday, met with resistance almost from the start, with his decision to truncate the summer holiday period treated with disdain.

It brought echoes of the Paul Le Guen era which ended in similarly ignominious circumstances in 2007, the French coach lasting even less time in the manager’s job than Caixinha. Where a sour relationship with his captain Barry Ferguson was the undoing of Le Guen, a three-time Le Championnat winner as head coach of Lyon, Caixinha’s dealings with Kenny Miller were equally acrimonious.

With his “Scottish” players, led by Miller, refusing to adapt to his training methods or accept the demands the Portuguese coach was making on his players, Caixinha found himself trying to coach a squad that was riven down the middle. When he was forced to confront Miller about his alleged leaking of dressing-room information, it was the final straw. Yet, while Miller might have been banished from the kingdom, there remained a number of subjects who were loyal to the most senior player in the squad, rather than their manager.

Such was the level of mutual distrust between the feuding sides, it is believed those in Caixinha’s camp were openly questioning whether there was an ulterior motive behind the circumstances which led to Ryan Jack’s three red cards in 13 games.

But this was about more than one man’s shortcomings. There was a clear failure in leadership at the top. Stewart Robertson, the managing director, Andrew Dickson, head of football administration, and director Graeme Park, are all believed to have been in favour of Caixinha’s appointment, but there was a split with others, such as Paul Murray and John Gilligan, against it. In the early days of the Caixinha tenure, he was under the impression that he would be in charge of coaching but it soon became clear, as the club struggled to find a director of football to match their budget, that he would be responsible for player recruitment, too.

It is the “institutional failure” that Rangers director Alastair Johnston was referring to in the aftermath of Caixinha’s departure. Tellingly, though, Johnston said he believed the squad was “better than people think and perhaps a new management team will get more out of them”.

“The decision was obviously something that was under consideration for a while, we are not deaf and blind,” Johnston said. “I think the events of the last couple of weeks demonstrated institutional failure, if you will. It was a systemic problem and not just one we thought could be corrected easily with the current personnel.”

 

That squad was, in large part, assembled by Caixinha. There is no denying he was deserving of a significant portion of blame, too.

His increasingly bizarre public pronouncements – whether talking about the omerta of trips to Vegas or caravans and dogs – owed much to a solid yet flawed grasp of the English language and a failure to gauge properly how the press, his employers, his players and the Rangers supporters construed his comments. With half a squad weighted against him, his position was untenable.

His removal leaves a sizeable tranche of players at Rangers who are now questioning their own futures. Those who were at Murray Park on Friday noted a lighter mood around the place and Miller has been welcomed back into the fold. But not everyone will be happy with that decision, certainly not those who feel Caixinha was failed by players who showed little or no enthusiasm to adapt to his methods.

Caixinha’s exit again raises the hoary argument about the attitudes of Scottish players and their ability to change, to embrace new ideas and cultures. Player power is part and parcel of the modern game and it can take many different forms. There is outright dissent, as displayed at Rangers, which infects all who are exposed to it and there is the insidious variety – where gradual decline comes when players stop short of mutiny but nevertheless stop responding to instruction, as appeared to happen at celtic under Ronny Deila.

The Norwegian, though, still managed to secure two league titles and so celtic persisted with their experiment before ushering in the Brendan Rodgers era. That move now looks inspired and has merely compounded Rangers’ failure to improve on the failed Mark Warburton appointment with a more dubious dabble with the chemistry set in appointing Caixinha.

No doubt Caixinha will, in the days ahead, reflect on the aforementioned institutional failures expressed by Johnston. In that respect, he shares a similarity with his predecessor Warburton who was similarly hung out to dry by his employers.

The Rangers board must hold up a collective hand and say “we chose this man because he was the outstanding candidate as decided by the strictures we placed on the position”.

The next appointment is crucial and carries some caveats; they do not make for great reading. Will Derek McInnes really help Rangers to close the gap on celtic? He recorded par with Aberdeenon a sizeable budget in the league. The best he can hope for is to do the same with Rangers.

 

And will the board, with all their delusions of a former grandeur, be prepared to accept second best or will the next man find himself battling the kind of unrealistic expectations that have claimed the past two coaches?

     

[NetherburnBear 173]

Totally pish.. Made up rumours... 1+1=3

[Lloyd 10,756]

5 minutes ago, five stars said:

Such was the level of mutual distrust between the feuding sides, it is believed those in Caixinha’s camp were openly questioning whether there was an ulterior motive behind the circumstances which led to Ryan Jack’s three red cards in 13 games.

That's a pretty big accusation to make.

[Big Al 55 9,248]

Shit stirring intended to drive stakes into the heart of the the squad.

[TMB 14,167]

This is suggesting Jack got himself deliberately sent off in an attempt to sabotage, Pedro.  That's hard to believe.

[geronimoo 1,474]

Not reading all that, but Pedro got himself sacked. I don't rate Miller but he didn't get Pedro the sack, Pedro got himself the sack with shit decisions. 

He huffed and puffed after the Motherwell game and sent the same team out against Killie with a big speech and it came back and bit him on the arse. 

He should have been sacked after Luxembourg but got away with it, he failed time after time against the bigger teams and his teams didn't even put up a decent fight. He was an embarrassment with the shit he kept coming out with in press conferences.

[Ryju84 3,170]

What  is this shit? Our team totally adapted to Pedros style. There were sone issues behind the scenes, but that article is shit stirring

[harry handsome 629]

They hate us but can't help earning a living off us.

[TMB 14,167]

1 minute ago, geronimoo said:

And again while I do not rate Miller at all I wouldn't say it wad his fault Pedro got the boot.

If Miller did the things this article accuses him off he should be booted out of Rangers immediately but there's no evidence to suggest any of this is true.  It all sounds quite ridiculous to be honest.  It sounds exactly like the PLG and Barry Ferguson era.

[ForeverAndEver 71,470]

Viva Le Kenny Miller.

[City_of_Blue 565]

We are Rangers, the only show in town

[RangersMedia 35,961]

Whilst I question the timing of the article (immediately after a good win whilst that lot drew), I don’t really question much in it. It’s basically what the majority on here have suspected occurred, isn’t it? 

It’s obvious from when Caixinha was appointed that Miller wasn’t happy. His interviews were very limited in discussions on the manager and lacking enthusiasm. 

I’m not surprised some backed Miller and others backed the manager - I think we can all pretty much guess who was in each camp. 

Pretty shocking, if true, that he was hired purely for coaching and the DoF would handle transfers and this didn’t turn out to be the case. Poor from the board.

[Bakbear 3,586]

32 minutes ago, psb07158 said:

Whilst I question the timing of the article (immediately after a good win whilst that lot drew), I don’t really question much in it. It’s basically what the majority on here have suspected occurred, isn’t it? 

It’s obvious from when Caixinha was appointed that Miller wasn’t happy. His interviews were very limited in discussions on the manager and lacking enthusiasm. 

I’m not surprised some backed Miller and others backed the manager - I think we can all pretty much guess who was in each camp. 

Pretty shocking, if true, that he was hired purely for coaching and the DoF would handle transfers and this didn’t turn out to be the case. Poor from the board.

We are a bunch of fannies on the internet. We don’t need to be held to a higher standard of journalism. 

This “report”? Story? Whatever the fuck it is , is just speculation and hearsay. It makes some pretty big leaps and makes some allegations that are bordering on libel. 

If it came with some quotes from inside informants that were verified then it would be a different thing but as it stands it is not much more than a blog by any one of us 

Ryan Jack deliberately got himself sent off because he supported an ageing player he has never played with over a manager that signed him and played him every game. Fucking behave. 

[HuistraHairDo 12,490]

Maybe Miller and Co.  Knew he was a dud from day 1. 

It was a big job for Pedro and he failed miserably no one to blame but himself. 

[baxterboy 476]

1 hour ago, five stars said:

 

... Such was the level of mutual distrust between the feuding sides, it is believed those in Caixinha’s camp were openly questioning whether there was an ulterior motive behind the circumstances which led to Ryan Jack’s three red cards in 13 games....

 

Considering two of Ryan's red cards were for non existent head butts, there is one irrefutable fact - never in the history of football 'journalism' has more preposterous stupidity ever been printed by a newspaper.

[Don54 25,517]

There are three kinds of lies,  there are lies, damned lies and the Scottish Mhedia

[Tenerife Bear 1,748]

Basically we're never catching celtic. I could have told us that. In fact I have. This board will not and cannot provide what is needed to compete  with them. 2nd is very best Rangers can hope for for the foreseeable. And it seems the majority are quite happy with that. 

[Gman36 3,455]

Classic scum psychology there.

We have him charge: he's shite, they take the piss out of his statements, his players are pish.

We get rid of him: he was a decent manager, our players are racist and that's why he never worked out.

Many many other snide digs in that article too. 

[Ben10 2,272]

What a load of conjectural pish. 

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

6 hours ago, NetherburnBear said:

Totally pish.. Made up rumours... 1+1=3

Just like all the other stuff then 

Some people never learn.

 

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

6 hours ago, Ryju84 said:

What  is this shit? Our team totally adapted to Pedros style. There were sone issues behind the scenes, but that article is shit stirring

Tell me how you know this?

This will be interesting.

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

5 hours ago, Bakbear said:

We are a bunch of fannies on the internet. We don’t need to be held to a higher standard of journalism. 

This “report”? Story? Whatever the fuck it is , is just speculation and hearsay. It makes some pretty big leaps and makes some allegations that are bordering on libel. 

If it came with some quotes from inside informants that were verified then it would be a different thing but as it stands it is not much more than a blog by any one of us 

Ryan Jack deliberately got himself sent off because he supported an ageing player he has never played with over a manager that signed him and played him every game. Fucking behave. 

Just like everything else, but let's just bash Miller and call him a cunt because the media think he's the mole.

If you have limited information, you're better not having an opinion, because you can be extremely wrong.

Just like we were with King

[Ger_onimo 20,488]

Amazing. Not a word of support or sympathy for him from anyone in the Scottish media when he was Rangers manager. Now he’s gone it’s all “progressive, European style culture” and unfair treatment from the players.

Utter shite.

[Ger_onimo 20,488]

“their delusions of a former grandeur”

And what the fuck is that supposed to mean? Someone doesn’t understand the words delusion or former.

[NornIronBear 450]

Not that'll happen but wouldn't it be great if the club cut ties with the newspapers. Since 2011 not one of them have questioned what happened to us in fact they've loved it.

You could tell Warburton wanted nothing to do with their pathetic questions and they were after Pedro's job from the moment he signed. There's nothing neutral about the way they are reporting Rangers so why not just announce from here on in press releases and interviews will only be conducted through official club channels. Post and pre match TV interviews will still happen but the written press can leave on 90 minutes.

Time to treat these people with the contempt they treat us.