“Caixinha Chaos” – a torturous timeline

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“Caixinha Chaos” – a torturous timeline
 Article by: Ibrox Noise

It is depressing being negative about Rangers all the time right now, but what is almost equally depressing is the consensus of agreement with us from fellow fans. We love our club, just like you, and we hate what is currently happening to it right now, but unfortunately we have to be realistic and honest.

And manager Pedro Caixinha has been an unmitigated disaster from before he was even appointed by the powers-that-be at Ibrox. Sure, we have managed to find positives and even praise him for some things – naturally, we need to support as well as criticise as fans, it is what we we do, so we were determined to find things to be optimistic about. We managed to put a positive spin on crazy as, again, like you, we are fans, and being completely cantankerous is not ideal.

But now that it has become clear that he is as inappropriate a choice as we first described him before any other media outlet even knew who he was, we are going to take you, our loyal and appreciated readers, through a depressing timeline of torture, a litany of chaos for which Pedro has been almost entirely responsible. We fully expect pelters for being so negative, even accusations of all sorts, and we shall take that on the chin, as we always do.

Without further ado:

Before he was ever even linked to the Rangers job, Pedro was already a ‘Celtic brother’. He worked for Celtic as a scout, and while that in itself is not alien to Rangers, the fact he referred to the club in such glowing terms such as ‘our family’ after Celtic won their fourth title in a row hardly strengthened Rangers fans affections for this stranger coming into our club.

When he did arrive, it all began when Pedro started uttering clichés in the media. Like his predecessor with his constant ‘it’s not abaht them, it’s abaht us and what we do’ plus his utter b*ll*cks about ‘pawfways to the first team’ lines, Pedro started repeating about ‘trusting in my players’ over and over again. About how important that was. It made sense a couple of times, but once he had uttered it for the sixth it started to grate.

And that led onto the next symptom – overindulgent explanations of EXACTLY how we were going to play in a match. There was Warburton and his refusal to say much at all, while Pedro went the other way and stopped short only of getting out a tactics board and explaining to the journo exactly what each player was going to do and how. He said a ridiculous amount and gave opponents a comical heads up about how Rangers were planning to play.

Which leads us onto ‘that’ Kilmarnock press conference. Pedro took the ‘unusual’ (read – ‘idiotic’) step of announcing his entire XI 36 hours before the trip to Rugby Park. We tried to spin this as his giving the rookies a chance to adjust to the spotlight, but the truth is it was just the fledgling signs of Pedro being at odds and not having a clue about how to handle Rangers or Scotland. The 0-0 draw rather justified criticism of this bizarre tactic.

But odder was to come when Pedro made a hoo-hah about getting in a Scottish local assistant to help him adjust to the climate at Ibrox, the SPL and the country – with Barry Ferguson, Neil McCann and many other club legends mooted, it was nothing short of ridiculous when Finland’s Jonatan Johansson was appointed. I like Jonatan – he is a wise man, and intelligent – but local and Scottish he is not. The appointment was to ‘bridge the culture gap between Caixinha and the club/league’ and yet it has emerged that Johansson is just a standard coach who does nothing the rest of the staff do not. To this day I will never understand that one.

Or, for that matter, the idiocy of ditching Rangers’ best defender Clint Hill the first chance he got. Hill and Wilson had been becoming a decent wee duo under Murty, so the first thing Pedro does when he gets the chance? Lets Hill go without an inch of sentiment. Senderos I get, Hill? And even worse, to this DAY Hill’s departure was never officially confirmed!

Then we move onto the Old Firm capitulation. Every man and his dog could see Rangers were set up wrong. Starts for Dodoo out of position, Hyndman who had not kicked a ball for months and Windass who had never kicked a ball at all in a completely indecipherable format were just three of the appalling mistakes that day. He ripped up Murty’s form book from the last meeting and decided to just make up his own rules. Rules which did not work, do not work, and will never work as long as he fails to grasp what he is doing.

Then the Aberdeen atrocity. Another woeful display and loss of a proud 26 year record. It still rankles.

Next we had ’10 days off’. Oh my, the media had a field day and few of the players were happy either. Pedro decided the best way to recharge the players for the new season was to give them barely over a week off. He relented and extended it to a colossal two weeks but I guarantee not a single Rangers player was refreshed from such a short break. And it sure showed at Ibrox then in Luxembourg.

But worse was to come. Barrie McKay, the star player and most valuable asset found himself on the outside. He was benched, ditched, then worse as he found himself ‘surplus to requirements’ while utter garbage like Dalcio was playing in his place. Pedro handled that situation disgustingly – sorry, there is no other word for the mess Pedro made of that. It was undignified, shoddy, lost Rangers money and made us look like fools.

But then he managed to somehow make it worse by implementing colour ban policy at Ibrox – green boots banned. I mean sure, that might be ‘their’ colour but it has never been a problem what damn colour boots players wore. Why turn it into a nonsense now?

And then it was compounded by the utterly ungracious statement made about McKay on the official site. That might not have been Caixinha’s fault, but when Joe Garner gets a ‘best wishes’ while McKay gets next to nothing despite his decent words the other way, something is badly wrong.

And then we know all about two of the latest which have Rangers a laughing stock throughout Europe.

But I have not even mentioned the arguments he had with Rangers fans following that exit.

I know I have not covered all his failings, far from it, but when you look at the series of blunders Pedro has made ‘so far’, it does not bode well for the future.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. The man's a disaster and if it was Robertson who brought him in as some have implied , then he should go too . Don't think i've felt so negative about a seasons prospects in 60 years of supporting Gers . Why is it some people always seem to insist that foreign is best , no matter how crap they are . We've lost our identity and it just isn't Rangers , the Rangers i grew up with , anymore .

    • Absolutely jimbo. I think I heard Robertson say the "I don't care where they come from as long as they do the business" line. He's too simple or arrogant to think through the possibility that where they come from may have a major impact on how quickly they can do the business (and if they can do it at all). It amazes me – especially with having zero pre-season in which to gel or get used to each other/the new surroundings – that we wide-berthed the possibility of signing proven young local players like Paterson, Lindsay and Mallan in favour of bringing in people who haven't a scooby what scooby means. The European defeat is in part a direct consequence of the stupidity of the likes of perma-grin Robertson.

  2. Come on Ibrox Noise enough is enough. Yes Luxembourg was a disaster and I appreciate you (and many others) want Pedro gone but it isn't going to happen this early in the season.

    Instead of rallying a campaign against the Rangers manager, we need to support whoever sits in the hotseat or wears the blue jersey.

    The procession of anti-Pedro articles is boring now

    • Hi BT,

      You'll be delighted to hear we're calling a ceasefire. We've said our piece, and no more critical articles will be forthcoming on this theme. In Pedro's defence our criticism is actually more towards those who appointed him than the man himself, but we've said all we need to say and hopefully Pedro turns it all round and makes us look very silly indeed. Nothing would give us more pleasure.

      Cheers.

    • Tried to post the same earlier, but it didn't get put up.

      Onward and upward- nowhere else to go.

  3. Are the writers on this site on holiday from their full time jobs?

    2 get rid of Pedro articles in 2 hours? Really? Well let's deal with your points 1 at a time:

    Before he was ever even linked to the Rangers job, Pedro was already a ‘Celtic brother’" – Does this really matter? Why not bring up Kenny Miller scoring against us? I don't remember anyone complaining about Kenny McDowall

    When he did arrive, it all began when Pedro started uttering clich̩s in the media РUtter bo****ks. You are trying to pad out the article here

    "And that led onto the next symptom – overindulgent explanations of EXACTLY how we were going to play in a match." – When did this happen? He told the media what he wanted from players. Your use of hyperbole here should be commended, but i'd prefer you stick to the facts

    "That’ Kilmarnock press conference. Pedro took the ‘unusual’ (read – ‘idiotic’) step of announcing his entire XI 36 hours before the trip to Rugby Park" – I choose to believe this was a statement to the board about the thin quality in the team with injuries. There really was not many options that he could have done at that time. Still a mis-step, although not really "idiotic" as claimed

    "Or, for that matter, the idiocy of ditching Rangers’ best defender Clint Hill" – In order to bring in players like Alves. Hill/Alves I know which one i would prefer.

    "Then we move onto the Old Firm capitulation" – Again you are picking small section of the truth here. Murty had more fullback available to him. Plan wasn't ripped up, but it wasn't as executable due to injuries

    "Then the Aberdeen atrocity. Another woeful display and loss of a proud 26 year record. It still rankles" – Agreed that it was a poor display

    Next we had ’10 days off’ – My favourite point of yours! How long did you expect to give them off? Any more time and the first time the players would have met would have been at the home leg! Seriously, this point is just nonsense!

    But worse was to come. Barrie McKay, the star player and most valuable asset found himself on the outside – Because he had done next to NOTHING the whole season. He was living off the glory of that one Celtic game. He offered nothing!

    But then he managed to somehow make it worse by implementing colour ban policy at Ibrox – green boots banned – And so he should! With all the colours of boots available, why would you want to wear the colour of your biggest rival? He is trying to breed a passion for Rangers throughout his players! You seem to care more about this than any of the players! Why?

    LAST BUT NOT LEAST ON CAIXINHA'S TORTUROUS TIME LINE

    And then it was compounded by the utterly ungracious statement made about McKay on the official site. THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN CAIXINHA'S FAULT. That's right, you have a point about his mistakes, WHERE YOU STATE IT ISN'T HIS FAULT!

    Took me a while to type this, so by the time it's published (if it's published) i look forward to reading another article on why Pedro must be sacked!

    • Hi Iain,

      Unlike other websites (Rangers or not) we can handle criticism of our content. We don't censor points of view just because they don't agree with what we say. We're big boys and we can take contrary opinions. We do draw the line at abuse though.

      Cheers.

    • pedro must be sacked because he aint got a clue about scottish football oops also european football hes seems to be more interested in the smelly east end mob .fact

    • Come back in 6 mths and see who was right, my guess will be not you, as we try to struggle with yet another caretaker manager, the guy is a fuckin disaster, you can polish and remodel a turd any way you like but at the end of the day its still one great big stinking turd.

      GSTQ

  4. I cannot disagree with all your comments as they are known facts (some of them anyhow), however McLeish said it today, we the fans have to get behind Pedro, he is going nowhere in the short term and needs our support. Yes he got rid of Hill who was 38 and being the best we had last season simply calls the rest of the defense into question. He replaces Hill with none other than Bruno Alves, this is a massive positive for the club and should be mentioned in your post, but is mysteriously left out, Ryan Jack brought in to replace the poor Halliday again a massive positive and not mentioned. Yes he let McKay go but up on till the Progres result the vast majority of the fans wanted him to go, it was just the value he should be allowed to go for that was the discussion point.
    I am convinced with Alves, Dorrans, Jack, Cardoso and Pena we will have a solid foundation to kick things on.

  5. Your case for the prosecution makes the judges job easy. There is no defence It should be an 'open and shut' case.
    Our last 2 managers (Pedro and Warbs) were to all intents between jobs. Warburton had been sussed and sidelined and Pedro was taking the Qatari Riyal having been scouting for Tom, Dick or Harry.
    Foreign was once acceptable when our Internationals came from The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, South America, Belgium or Denmark and let's not forget our magnificent England boys!
    Someone in the capacity of Director or Owner who sourced and/or sanctioned their recruitment has to own up and be held accountable. Make no mistake once Pedro is bumped, sooner rather than later, the next manager appointment has to be the right one.
    I am very much an optimist and as I have posted on twitter (@billytf) recently I've seen it all before in the modern era, but I can't see Pedro being successful at Ibrox. I will however be delighted to say I was wrong should a miracle happen. Onward and Upward Rangers!

  6. Barrie McKay left…….we have to remember he DID NOT sign a new contract..
    that has to be enough to sell ANY player…..no matter what he has done or hasnt.
    My biggest concern is…who do we have, to replace him and the answer to that,Dalcio,hmmmm……not a good choice…

  7. For me would be a club owned by our great Fans who pick the manager and staff and players no need for many who take £250k for fuck all.

    we could do this we are bigger than most clubs where all the money would be put on players and manager and some other staff,come on we could be a real force with just about all the money going on the the Team we want to watch.fanownership is the way forward.

  8. Let it drop now ibrox!,your constant persucution is not friendly no more!,,he made mistakes and maybe ped does not yet realise how big his job is,,,,i am all for giving him the first 6 games if we dont have 5 victories i would then say hes a busted flush,i would not give him one game more than this as i believe any new man has to have a chance to repair the damage done,,he will have a full squad and ample time to prepare so the first five games should paint the seasons picture i would think given pedros record uptill now of non improvement with players,unfortunately pedro has not galvanised the players or taught them nothing uptill now maybe the first 5 competive games can show a massive improvement when dealing with a few proven internationalists,,if not !,times up im sorry to say

  9. We can only hope to god that the signing of Dorrans and the introduction of Alves will make all the difference but if this goes tits up after the first few games he will do the honourable thing: resign and we can get McLeish in, a football Manager not a training ground coach, to try and sort this mess out.

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