New Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha has an unenviable job on his hands – which is to make Rangers as Scotland’s top team once again.
For decades, Rangers and Celtic fought out their own private league and cup battles, with the Gers ultimately the most successful club in the land. As if competition wasn’t poor enough, the Premiership has been turned into a one-horse race of late and people everywhere; not just in the blue half of Glasgow, want that to change.
Firstly, the Portuguese man has to hit the task aggressively. Head-on. There should be no talk of Rangers having a ‘free swing’ at the league because they are not expected to win it. There should be no denying of, or shying away from the fans’ demands that Rangers, immediately, should be back dining at Scotland’s top table.
Sport is so psychological, as we know. Despite their undoubted talent, players face limitations in the mind and in Rangers’ case it’s evident in the current climate. Knowing that people around the football world generally do not expect them to beat Celtic to the title means that the kind of “it doesn’t matter anyway” philosophy, subconsciously creeps into the player’s heads and can lead to sub-par performances and results.
To counteract this, Caixinha should resist the temptation to do the typical modern managerial thing and defend poor performances. There should be a very public demand for his players to keep up their performance week in, week out against domestic opposition and put proper pressure on Celtic in the table. Should they be able to achieve this, then complacency and any related drop in points will be Celtic’s and not theirs.
The second thing is obvious; improve the squad! Easier said than done, you might say. However, there is one huge mistake that was made by Mark Warburton in his second year as Rangers manager which now needs to be reversed. In his first year in the Championship, Warburton brought in exciting, youthful and quick players to help Rangers’ promotion push and it worked a treat. Loan players like Dominic Ball, Gedion Zelalem and Nathan Oduwa complemented permanent young players James Tavernier, Harry Forrester and Barrie McKay to great effect.
A recipe for success you would think? Warburton followed that up after promotion by bringing in then 37-year-old Clint Hill, 31-year-old Philippe Senderos, 32-year-old Niko Kranjcar and let us not forget the signing of 34-year-old Joey Barton! These signings have, to put it kindly, rather backfired on the club and a more ambitious, forward-thinking transfer policy will be needed by Caixinha in the summer.