Rangers analysis: What challenges await the new Ibrox management team?

For both men, the challenge of mounting a serious attempt to narrow

the gap to Celtic would represent a significant step up from anything they have undertaken before. The pair will face an unenviable, some might say impossible, task given the gap in financial resources available to their city rivals, and the move represents a massive gamble for an Ibrox board that simply cannot afford to make another mistake.

Here we take a look at some of the issues the putative new management structure will face:

How will Caixinha and the director of football get on?

It is clear the head coach has not been appointed by the director of football. Ross Wilson, pictured below,

is well-known for his thorough reasearch but even he will have been reaching for the telephone to

carry out background checks on the little-known Caixinha. By consensus, the continental model of director

of football and head coach works best when the senior man appoints the other. It is apparent by the

timings of the interview process that Wilson and Caixinha is a marriage of convenience.

There is nothing wrong with that, of course. The two men may get along famously – and Rangers only need to point to the relationship between previous incumbents Frank McParland and Mark Warburton to prove that allies do not always make the best bedfellows – but it does increase the risk when two employees are flung together.

Robbie Neilson, who was head coach to Craig Levein’s director of football at Hearts, had this to say: “The director of football has to be the one who comes in and appoints the manager. If it works the other way about, you can end up with issues about who is in control. It can cause a bit of friction.”

If Wilson is appointed director of football how does he go about operating on a limited budget?

In his statement on February 11 following Warburton’s exit, Dave King said he had injected £18 million

of the £30m he had promised supporters he would spend. It was a claim that would have had Rangers supporters feverishly tapping figures into their calculators. If stadium improvements and sundry other expenses are all competing for a share of King’s investment then Wilson will have to be at his creative best. He is most commonly credited with taking Virgil Van Dijk from Celtic to Southampton where he developed into a £50m asset. Van Dijk cost £13m and had just finished the season as Scotland’s player of the year. Wilson will not have the luxury of operating with such lofty budgets but he may well have accrued an extensive list of mid-level targets within Rangers’ price range.

Is Caixinha really the answer?

King admitted himself that Warburton was “relatively untested” in that February statement so it seems odd that the club is preparing to go back down the unproven route. Nevertheless, Caixinha has been compared favourably to Jose Mourinho in his homeland and, indeed, the pair both began their managerial careers at Uniao Leiria in Portugal’s top flight. But the similarities are tenuous at best. Yes, Mourinho encouraged his compatriot to follow his lead in undertaking his coaching qualifications with the Scottish Football Association and, like the Manchester United manager, Caixinha is fluent in English. He is an impressive orator and is known to have

impressed the Rangers board in his dealings thus far with them.

Unlike Mourinho, Caixinha has spent most of his career as a No 2 and has limited success to show for his efforts. An Apertura and Clausura title in the Mexican league and a Concacaf Champions League final appearance are indications that he is a talented coach but no more than that. He has a reputation for attacking

football much as Warburton did, but Rangers’ problems since their promotion from the Championship – and even during their time there – emanated from their defence. One of his first tasks, therefore, will be to sort out a back four which has shipped goals at a rate of more than one a game. In theory, he does not have to improve Rangers exponentially in his first season; merely closing the gap on Celtic will be deemed a success. But incremental improvement – exactly what Rangers need – will only be tolerated for so long.

How will he handle the media?

During his time at Santos Laguna, Caixinha was fined four times by the Mexican FA following spats with the now-Everton striker Enner Valencia and fellow coaches. He endured a difficult relationship with the press, too. After winning the Clausura in 2015, he said: “I’m not polemic, I’m discomforting. I say things that many people don’t want to hear.”

He was also described during his time in Mexico as “a strange man to defend. He’s stand-offish, temper-

amental and isn’t media-friendly. But he’s a breath of fresh air in a league that features far too many old, retread coaches”.

That might be music to the ears of a ravenous Scottish press corps who became weary at Warburton’s

anodyne deliveries but it might also come back to bite him. The Englishman was perceived to be well-drilled in media techniques having been a regular guest on the Football League Show on BBC1 on Saturday nights and was viewed as a breath of fresh air at the outset but, by his second season, the atmosphere had gone stale. By the end he was a solitary and often contradictory figure. Perhaps Caixinha’s biggest test will be how he conducts himself in public when results don’t go his way.

Who will survive the inevitable summer clearout?

Recruitment has been a major problem at Ibrox since Rangers went into liquidation and during the subsequent salvage operation that followed. Under Charles Green there was initial talk of winning a cup during the year spent in the third division but a raft of over-priced, ill-suited players were drafted in and the very notion appeared ludicrous by that season’s end.

Rather than adopt a measured approach of blending proven lower-league campaigners and Murray Park youth graduates the spending continued to mount up. Fast forward a few seasons and King’s statement three weeks ago made much of the 11 signings brought in by Warburton which “backed the manager’s request for accelerated investment [and] placed us significantly above the football resources available to our competitors”.

It laid fault squarely at the door of the management team rather than accepting a portion of the blame for allowing that overspend in the first instance.

The new regime must address key areas quickly and, position-by-position, it is hard to argue a case for the retention of many, if any.

The goalkeeper Wes Foderingham has been one of Rangers’ best players this season and yet that speaks to how poor some of the others have been. In defence, Lee Wallace should be safe and perhaps Lee Hodson, but Danny Wilson, Rob Kiernan, Jason Tavernier and Clint Hill will all be looking over their shoulders.

There are no certainties to remain in midfield either: ordinarily Barrie McKay would be a shoo-in to stay but he would also fetch a significant sum on the transfer market which could be used to bring in others. Andy

Halliday is Rangers to the core but has been the target for supporters’ ire during the recent poor run, while Jon Toral and Emerson Hyndman are on loan from Arsenal and Bournemouth respectively.

Jason Holt has been quietly effective but, ultimately, is a squad player at best, while Josh Windass appears to have potential. Jordan Rossiter has looked the part but is rarely fit, Niko Kranjcar is one of the highest earners and looked past his best before a season-ending cruciate tear, and Matt Crooks toiled with a variety of

injuries before being sent out on loan.

In attack, Martyn Waghorn has struggled for goals from open play, Joe Garner had a song dedicated to him which did nothing to deflect from his poor return, while Joe Dodoo and

Michael O’Halloran have been bit-part players. Only Kenny Miller could justifiably claim to deserve a role under Caixinha and he will be fast approaching his 38th birthday by the time next season starts.