Dave King and Pedro Caixinha never really seen eye-to-eye, and that was proven again yesterday.
The Rangers chairman had some strong words about the Portuguese manager’s recruitment at Ibrox. The club splashed out around £9million on Caixinha’s squad last season in a bid to get closer to Celtic.
Caixinha brought in 11 new faces during the summer of 2017. These included the likes of Carlos Pena, Eduardo Herrera, Graham Dorrans, and Fabio Cardoso. Those are just several names yet to make much of an impact during their time in Glasgow.
Some such as Daniel Candeias and Alfredo Morelos, however, have been terrific buys who’ve made an impact under Steven Gerrard.
Yet, King said the following regarding Caixinha’s work in the transfer market overall.
“We started last season with a new manager, a new coaching staff, and a raft of new players including the flagship signing of a European Championship-winning centre-back (Bruno Alves).
“The great disappointment is that our investment at the start of last season proved to be not fit for purpose. We embarrassingly lost our Europa League first-round qualifier to a team with an extremely modest European pedigree (Progres)
“Unfortunately, domestic performances continued to be poor during the first half of the season and reached a point where the board considered that the resources we had available to us would not be able to turn things around.”
Nothing incorrect from King
Whilst you can argue whether the finger-pointing was necessary, nothing King has here was a lie. Caixinha effectively wasted close to £10million with his transfer signings, some of which Rangers want off the wage bill as soon as possible.
Secondly, however – this was an AGM. Hard-hitting answers have to be given in order to appease the shareholders. There’s no point in dancing around the facts just to appease a former manager.
Rangers fans have been asking for more clarity from their board at these kind of events. Here, they got it. The finger was pointed entirely towards Caixinha, who managed to sign flops with a lot of money that could’ve been spent more wisely.
King also has to take some responsibility himself, however. Like it or not, this all happened under his watch. Whilst Caixinha was to blame, King also must shoulder the flak for allowing him the chance to buy these players.
These days, Caixinha is working wonders at Cruz Azul. He’s just recently won the Mexican Cup, and has adjusted to life well in South America after a tough start. He won’t be too fussed about being called out at a Rangers AGM.
Some might call it a poor show, but it was a truth that needed to be said after the calamitous summer window of last season.
