Where did it go so badly wrong for Carlos Pena?

When attacking midfielder and Mexican internationalist Carlos Pena joined Rangers from Chivas Guadalajara, almost everybody at Ibrox Noise was very excited that Rangers were signing a top quality forward-thinking player.

Manager Pedro Caixinha spun him as a box-to-box player who could work hard, get into the area late and bag goals while covering both ends of the pitch.

This is exactly what the Ibrox club needed to catch Celtic in the league. We required a few international players to come to Rangers and strut their stuff in the way that Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne had done in the past with Walter Smith running the show.

As we know, none of this happened with Carlos. So what went so wrong at Ibrox for the 27-year-old?

Rangers manager Graeme Murty has revealed that Carlos Pena’s disappointing spell at Rangers was not all the Mexican’s fault.  He has admitted the club have to shoulder a little part of the blame for not playing to Pena’s strengths.

He said:

“The system that suited him best was the diamond — but we don’t always have the facility to play that way. We need to make sure when we get people in we get the best out of them. As much as people will question and criticise Carlos, I think we also have to look at ourselves.”

Pena earned 19 caps for Mexico and his return to Cruz Azul will give him an opportunity to impress the new Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio and if he plays extremely well and wins his 20th cap, could it make Rangers look misguided for giving up on him too soon?

27-year-old Pena will complete his loan move to Cruz Azul under our last flop of a manager Pedro Caixinha who is at least doing the decent thing for Rangers by taking his 20K weekly salary off the Rangers wage bill.

During his disappointing six months in the SPL he still managed to score five times in 14 games. There was no denying his base quality and technical ability but equally there is no doubt that Pena struggled badly for match fitness and to get up to speed with the overly physical style of Scottish football.

At Fir Park, for example, players like Pena have absolutely no chance of playing attractive football and even Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers was moaning about the outrageous challenges in their last game against Motherwell.

Graeme Murty believes that the system that suited Carlos best was in the diamond position — but Rangers don’t always have the opportunity to play that way against certain teams in the SPL.

This made it very difficult for the Ibrox club to get the best out of Pena for most of our games as this was by far the best shape for suiting his ability as an attacking forward player.

The 27-year-old represented Mexico only four years ago and will be desperate to prove to the El Tri boss that he is worthy of a place in his 23-man squad for this summer’s World Cup in Russia.

Murty’s immediate requirements are to make sure we sign the right players to get the best out of their natural ability in all their best positions, if we are to catch up on Celtic and to finish 2nd in the league above Aberdeen, Hibernian and Hearts of Midlothian.

But we must learn lessons from episodes like Pena. Expensive mistakes are too costly for this club.