A board divided

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A board divided

It has been a long-running and simmering undercurrent at Ibrox ever since Pedro Caixinha was appointed.

Whether or not you agree with the site’s Richard over Pedro’s chances of succeeding (we do, incidentally), there has been a continuing underbelly of board division over his appointment from the getgo.

The fact is Pedro Caixinha was not a unanimous choice as Rangers manager – in fact, from what we understand, the board was split right down the middle. And those who advocated the selection are said to be standing by their decision resolutely.

This is not to say there is a fight among the board, far from that – it is just that not everyone agreed on signing up the Portuguese and nothing in the past six plus months has persuaded the doubters to change their minds. Or sadly, the others.

For those probably screaming ‘who’s yer source ya fantasist’, well, it is pretty common knowledge Pedro was not the choice of all board members, so we are not saying anything which is not already out there.

But we do understand how 50/50 split the board are on this, and how right now, progress is in absolute limbo due to it.

The fact is Pedro was never the right choice as manager. Ibrox Noise and all our writers have all been in 100% agreement about that. Half the board are too. A glut of ex-players and managers join them.

Paul Le Guen got less time as Rangers manager than Pedro has, did better than Pedro has, with less money than Pedro got, and yet there remains a staunch pro-Caixinha faction in the support which advocates giving him yet more time.

This is not to slur the ex-Nacional boss – he seems a decent enough gentleman with his heart in the right place. And we are not trying to smear him as a person. But little about his tenure in Govan convinces anyone who doubted him from the start to change their minds.

And that is the biggest concern – none of his doubters are now believers and some of his believers are now doubters.

Could be a long season.

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41 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder what camp the Director of Football is in. ? He was appointed after Pedro.
    What is the Board's ambition? We have the second highest paid squad in the league (including the manager) and the most expensively purchased this season. But we're now targeting 3 wins in a row!! Sad. We're Rangers and we need our pride back. Mon the Gers

  2. I dont think it was wrong appointment. And im defo not alone as i see loads of others backing pedro on a similar site to this. They dnt bash the manager and players nearly as much as this website does though

    • Hi Davey, thanks for your comment.

      We have no issue with others' opinions, that is the beauty of all this. The reason we are critical is because we are so desperate to see our club restored to the state it was in just over half a decade ago. We see us in fifth place and cannot reconcile that with our battles with Celtic for the title. Pedro for us was the wrong appointment but he is not the only thing which isn't fit for purpose right now.

    • We all want our club restored to what it once was however there needs to be sense of realism here. We as Gers fans were spoiled for seasons with your Gazzas, Laudrups and The Hammer etc. We have to accept where we are at the moment. Pedro and his newly assembled squad deserves/needs time. Calling for his or anybody elses head that cannot provide instant success is only going to be detrimental to the future success of the Club. Just my opinion. Watp.

    • How can you even compare Pedro with PLG, he had better players to start with and brought in crap bar 1/2 of them, Pedro had crap players and brought in some better than he had, its unfortunate the result at the weekend but we done well on Saturday, the team is starting to get there and I can see us beating them at least once this season, when they do get beaten they will fold and we will only get better.
      WATP
      RTID
      🔴⚪🔵👍👍⚽

  3. I do believe Pedro deserves more time. I think he has improved us as a team and rightly so with the money spent and i dont feel 5th in the league this early in the season is a fair representation on the improvement . We may have some value with in our squad with Morelas and Cardoso particularly. I am now wondering where my judgement is at on a football level because i appear to be the only guy who thinks that Pena has something about him. He will need more time to adapt to a quicker brand of football in the spl but he is direct , makes good forward runs, appears to have a good rapour with Morelas . He will be Millers replacement i assume if Pedro is still in charge come next year. The manager shows passion though some of that passion is lost in translation which can make him look stupid but he will learn. He is trying to fix Warburtons mess and for a manager who has had one transfer window he has done a decent job , He worked fast to attract a better quality of player and yes some of his judgements have not worked as yet but some have, Thats part and parcel of buying players and bedding them in. I am wondering if Murty or McInnes was in charge right now would they be receiving the same criticism , I dont think they would be. Pedro can waffle a lot of S*ite at times and this has gone against him. The Mckay/ MOH situations were badly handled from a business point of view and no doubt Pedro has made a lot of mistakes but I still have faith in our manager. Saturday was not a backs against the walls – celtic having 20 odd shots and rangers not getting up the park. It was different from last year. Morelas should have had a penalty , Tav should have passed better to Morelas for a tap in , Morelas had a header saved well by Gordon. Celtic attacked the area of the pitch were we had injury problems. we reacted well after going down to a lucky goal it has to be said but unfortunately lost the second goal while pressing high. all in all the game could have been different and we had chances that we would not have made last year. The 5-1 defeat 1st game of the season last year was a walkover , the 1-0 could have been 6 and the 5-1 at ibrox was totally unacceptable but Pedro has improved on that result and team. The revolving door is not always the answer and we cant keep buying new teams to suit new managers. We as a fan base expect 2nd , I think we will get 2nd. Let the man finish what he started, worse case we finish 3rd and are in Europe anyway so other than pride there will be no harm done in the long run. WATP

    • I have to agree- he talks a lot of pish and has mis-handled some situations, but we are improving and who else would be an option anyway?
      My biggest disappointments have been Alves and Dorrans, both lauded as quality- is it Ped's fault that they have not stepped up? Maybe, but it's arguable.
      I have liked what I've seen of Pena in snaps; as a replacement for Miller, his link up play and positioning are far superior. We lost any sense of link-up when KM came on.
      I would still prefer to see Dorrans further up. Watch the Partick game- he was often behind the centre-backs, which was infuriating. For me, Dorrans should be an attacking mid, with Pena a number 10.

      But hey ho, our issues are as they have been for a while. A fairly unreliable goalie, fullbacks who can't defend and a dearth of creativity in and around the box. The latter we have gone some way to fix with Pena, Candeias and Morelos. The former we are still struggling with.

      When you struggle, you need players who will bite and fight. Only Jack and Morelos have done that when needed.

      Now if Ped stop talking pish and concentrated on playing to our strengths…

    • Cant disagree with anything you are stating. Dorrans has been poor and surely that is more of a concern than Pena taking a while to settle as Dorrans has been in British football for 11-12 years. Alves has been average, not as aggressive in either tackling or shouting as i would have expected and i had hoped to see a new side to him when the old firm game came calling but obviously going to Spain is more important than supporting your team mates and seeing what Ibrox is like when the atmosphere is bouncing. We need to stick together , i doubt Mcinnes , Wright, Davies or Murty would have formed a team to do any better than Pedro has and i think if he were "one of ours" the uproar would be a wimper. WATP

  4. pedro was never the right man for the job, i would like the board to show me what was on his cv that said he was right for the rangers job, his first press conference when he said we had the best squad in scotland was embarrassing, it reminded me of bertie voghts, we need leadership right from the top, admit they got it horribly wrong and make a change before its too late, his signings alone should be enough for the sack! £2m for pena? he looks like a fan who’s won a competition to play for a day.

    • I agree Andy, would have been happier with Tommy Wright or Derek McInnes and to have spent the money on home grown players. Didn't expect to close the gap on Celtic this year however, based on Saturdays performance, it looks like we are miles away, still.

  5. He has not addressed the area's that needed sorted,it's obvious to everybody else that the defense is the problem,we have two full backs who cannot defend and this is where we are losing goals in every game,plus he has played miller before in about five games in a row,good player as he is at 38 you cannot start five games on the trot at that age,plus pena should never have started that game a goal against partick does not make you a player,there is no way pedro is the man for the job,

  6. I have never posted on here or follow follow before despite reading most of the stuff daily. A reality check is what's needed by all of us I'm afraid. The board not only helped massively to save the club but also backed the manager more than any of us would have expected in the summer window. Do people really think we can sack managers willy nilly after poor results? That only happens in England where the Sky money makes anything possible. Say we did and then the next guy does the same? Do we just sack him as well and try again? Get real, I personally am happy that we still have a club after everything we have been through and I believe in time we will be back on top of the pile but it's going to take time and patience. The other thing that amazes me is how fickle some of us are and how quick our opinions change. It was the same with Mccoist then Warburton and now Pedro. The fight will be long but it will make winning it all the more sweeter.

    • True. How many "big clubs" have found themselves in trouble because they were "big" and never expected to have to fight- Newcastle, Forest, Aston Villa… the latter two European winners.

      We ARE big and we HAVE fought our way back. We need to stop expecting a knockout and prepare to lose some of the rounds before we win the fight.

  7. This is a follow up to my last comment about pedro,what manager in their right mind gets involved with opposition players coming off the pitch and then again in the tunnel,what goes on on the pitch is the referee's job good or bad as if we haven't been embarrassed enough, it cannot go on.

    • If Scott Brown elbows one of your players you expect the team to surround the ref surround the other Celtic players and defend your teammate. That did not happen and we are showing ourselves to be a nice team, when in old firm history would you see something like that not result in a 22 man shoving match. The incident happened just before the half time whistle and in front of our bench, I am happy Pedro stuck up for his player and team. Someone has to, Remember Mcoist-lennon. Passions over heat but at least he has passion.

    • Thanks for using so much common sense, Martin. Let's see where we are in April. Give the guys a chance. The refs haven't.

  8. We are miles from winning the league I'm afraid, that's the reality. After what we have been through it's not really a surprise, we have been nearly stripped to bare bones since 2012. The current board have done an amazing job to get us to where we are today and they also backed the manager more than any of us expected in the summer window. Any manager needs time and at least two windows to build, I remember the excitement on here and follow follow when he started recruiting in the summer. I also remember the gushing on here about Warburton's team which also turned to calls for his head. We cannot afford to just change managers willy nilly after bad results without bankrupting the club. They can do it in England because of the Sky money but dream on if you think we are in that position. It's going to be a long journey before we are winning the league again imo but it will make it all the sweeter when we do.

  9. Ibrox noise,you may remember that i actually posted in here,just after pedro caixinha was appointed rangers manager,to state that the rangers board we're split on who should have followed mark warburton,as the next rangers manager!Although he wouldn't be my no.1 choice,i know for a fact,that derek mcinnes was the man half the board wanted but i have it on very good authority,that the casting vote in favour of caixinha,was indeed cast by graeme park,the son of douglas park!I also was told that walter smith actually thought derek mcinnes was the chosen,preferred candidate,to succeed warburton as the new rangers manager,48 hours before caixinha was actually appointed!!Walter smith had also told the board in person,when asked,to go and get mcinnes from aberdeen!!

    • Robert Miller..Walter also told the Board the Ally McCoist was the man for the managers job, and look how well that worked out.

  10. Paul le guen made a mess of this club until he had to be removed. Pedro inherited a mess and has slowly been improving it.

    Is he brilliant? probably not
    Is there someone better we could replace him with? I'm not sure there is.

    • I 100% agree that Pedro inherited a mess.
      I also 100% agree that he is cleaning it up.
      But it is also true that Pedro is creating problems elsewhere where they didn’t exist previously.

      News signings have been hit and miss.

      Transfers out of the club have yielded poor returns after publicly saying those players didn’t have futures at Rangers. Unforced error that cost the club millions!

      And despite all this, the results on the field, even throwing out last term with Warbs’ squad, have been poor.

      We started the season by losing to a bunch of rank amateurs, literally, from Luxembourg.

      Then we lost to Hibs. Again. At home. And we can point to the red card, but that happened when the score was 1-1 and we were far from dominating. We should have been up 2-0 at that point and a 10 man team should have been able to hold on.

      Rangers are one of 3 teams that have exactly 1 league win at Ibrox this term. The same number as Celtic and Hibs. 4 points out of 12, and it will be the middle of October before that changes.

      Finally, there are managers at 2 different SPL clubs who are both capable and willing to manage Rangers if the job were offered. Both would do a better job than Pedro, even if you accept the premise that we could do better than either of them. Personally, I think our ideal next manager is already employed at the club. He was one of 4 managers across all of Scotland to take points off of Celtic last term and is highly underrated as a manager.

  11. i'm a hoops fan and i agree with you totally on this. Pedro was the worst choice Rangers could have made. There are a few young managers out there that could do a job.

  12. That’s actually reassuring that the board is having a healthy (or unhealthy?) debate right now about Pedro.

    As I mentioned in response to yesterday’s article, I think the ultimate failure here is the Board’s, not Pedro’s. With the board split, there’s going to be a reckoning at some point, and I suspect those board members fronting the soft loans will be the ones who will win the day.

    For my 2 cents, I hope the board eventually brings someone in who has a vision and a plan to take us back to the top, even if that plan takes 5-10 years to come to fruition.

  13. Interesting the comment by MOH regarding the intensity of the training. As yet the team have failed to maintain a high tempo for 90 minutes and seem to struggle to do so.

    Also the number of injured players with muscular related injuries is concerning. Alves, John, Wallace, Bates, Rossiter, Wilson. Is there something wrong in the training programme??

  14. Pedro, one would think, has around 10 weeks left to right the ship. Assuming we make it past Motherwell in the League Cup Semi-Final, we would have the following games lined up:

    Nov 26 – League Cup Final – Celtic/Hibs
    Nov 29 – Home – Aberdeen
    Dec 3 – Away – Aberdeen

    If we lose all 3 of those fixtures, what support Pedro has on the board will surely evaporate. He has to win at least 1 vs Aberdeen, if for no other reason than to simply keep pace with them for 2nd place! Losing the cup and also falling further behind Aberdeen, all in the same week, cannot and will not be tolerated by the board in my opinion.

    • I agree with almost everything you say Johnny. The only thing that I disagree with is the assumption that we'll see off Motherwell. They're a big strong team who'll keep going for 90 mins. We'll need to be special in that game to progress. The fact that we're hoping for victories rather than being confident shows we need a new manager. Mon the Gers

  15. But how can we keep getting rid of the manager and his staff 4 year contract around £15million to pay them off bring in new manager and his staff £20million how long can we keep doing this give Pedro time with his players look we are going try and get second and mybe a cup or two in with Pedro and mybe go for first in his last year what are we going do with all his players new managers want there own players its going costs millions again,stay with Pedro for now

    • John, while I disagree with you regarding Pedro, I wholeheartedly agree with everything else you wrote.

      To me, the club and DOF, not the manager, needs to define the playing style and preferred formation, as well as the attributes that will make a player successful at each position. Failere to do so, in my opinion, is why we find ourselves in the current predicament and have not seen meaningful progress in the last 18 months. If a new manager is needed, we should hire someone who prefers a playing style and formation that is already in place and will be able to utilize most or all of the existing squad without having to rip it all up and start over.

      Think of it this way: Barcelona is very famous for playing tiki-taka with short passes and dominating possession. The player with the ball almost always has 3 outlet options within 10 yards. And that has been the same system they have played for the better part of 15 years across multiple managers and complete overhauls of the playing squad. Their player recruitment strategy is geared around tiki-taka – you won’t find them signing Lukaku or Bale, regardless of how good those players are, because they wouldn’t mesh well with their other players or the playing style the team utilizes.

      Rangers, as a club from top to bottom, need to do the same. If we hire a new manager, he should already know how to coach the system and should be expected to use most of the players on the existing squad. Any additional funds the board releases should be used to improve the quality of players rather than simply replacing them because they were recruited by the prior manager.

  16. At the risk of digging in an old grave, we need to go back to 2012 and I don't want to rehash the whatever that happened then, but we had a golden opportunity then to commit to a youth policy and suffer through whatever issues that may have thrown up, but if we could have scoured the country and the continent and grown a youth group we would be golden now, sprinkle it with some of the unknown quantities like the man's did and look where we would have been that was my belief from the get-go WATP

    • Back then, the biggest golden opportunity was to abandon the joke called Scottish football and should have joined the English leagues. We would have had to start from the bottom there but I am confident we would have been in the Championship by now, raking in the million and playing for the premiership. That was our golden opportunity missed.

    • Come on GersJimbo get real, there'll be no one admitted to the so called 'best league in the world' until the Sky Sports bubble bursts, then they'll come chasing us and the manks because they're fed up watching Burnley v Crystal Palace and they need the money we can generate. Get the money poured into the academy!

    • I think that as well except in the unlikely event of a mysterious Arab sheikh showing up with billions. For instance I believe that Celtic could win the SPL this year a team made up entirely of academy players – Ralston, Ajer, Miller, Tierney, McGregor, Christie, Forrest plus a few astute local acquisitions like Brown and Griffiths. They money is just not in the SPL for any other approach imo.

  17. Earlier post said walter smith advised the board to go for derek mcinnes. Walter also advised them to put mccolst in charge & look how that turned out. A bit like sir alex saying moyes was the man to succeed him at man u. Sorry but we would go nowhere with mcinnes in charge.
    Pedro needs another 2 transfer windows, by that time more deadwood would be off the books, wilson moh etc & we might have moult walker mclean on the field by then & things would start to take shape. Remember celtic have a 6 year start on us now, so we need to show patience now more than ever. Knee jerk reactions will just send us back to where we were when the loaf came in.

  18. Seven players on the Celtic side that started on Saturday also started the Cup semi-final game last year when we beat them on PKs. They are now unrecognizable from the team we played off the park that day, and you have to say Rodgers must be a huge factor in that. Thats the impact of a good manager. Pedro just isnt up to the job.

  19. In what way is Caixhina improving the team? There has not been one single convincing performance in the league is season. Despite spending more than any other team in the league in the summer we are sitting 6 points behind Aberdeen. Pedro's win rate is worse than Warburton's, and the worse since Le Guen. He has replaced deadwood with driftwood. Candieas – nomadic journeyman of little ability and destined to return to obscurity post Rangers – a downgrade on McKay and an upgrade on O'Halloran in attitude only. Cardosa – certainly no upgrade on Wilson – so poor on a one to one and continually gives away free kicks in dangerous areas. Herrera – contribution almost non existent to date and past goal record would suggest that this will change anytime soon. Dalcio – surely only there so that Pena is not the worst player att the club. Pena – can't run, can't tackle, slow and overweight several weeks into the season. All of the above Dalcio apart cost serious money. The other new recruits – okay we'll give Pedro Alves due to the Portuguese connection – but right now Alves is truggling a little, Morelos was Johanssen's spot, Jack was always coming to Ibrox when his contract ran out at Aberdeen, Dorrans – not sure Pedro ever saw him before he signed as he has no clue where to play him. The Board must now show the humility that Pedro lacks and admit their mistake and sack Caixhina now without further delay and embarrassment.

  20. Mourinho has quite a considerable track record of success wherever he's been – Caixhina hasn't! The only thing Pedro has in common with Jose – is that he's Portuguese and has a big mouth!

  21. Curtis, Jose Mourinho's Man U are competing with clubs with similar financial clout. This season we've spent money that other Scottish clubs(bar celtic) can only dream about!
    Mon the Gers

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