Jonatan Johansson and Pedro Caixinha were part of what was supposed to be an exciting time for Rangers.
Caixinha arrived in Glasgow with the task of halting Celtic’s domestic success. After a lengthy recruitment process, the eccentric Portuguese decided to go for Johansson as his third man. It was a decision that saw the likes of Barry Ferguson and Alex Rae snubbed.
Yet, the appointment of Caixinha was a disaster in the first place. The former Rangers manager led the club to a disastrous Europa League exit to Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg. That was followed by an embarrassing Betfred Cup semi-final loss to Motherwell, and continuous domestic failure.
It’s one of the darker periods in Rangers’ history, but don’t go telling that to Johansson. The former Rangers striker believed that his spell working alongside Caixinha was invaluable for his own personal coaching development.
Speaking in the Daily Record this morning, the current Greenock Morton manager stated that Caixinha did have the qualities to be a successful coach.
“Pedro was different. But he took care of his staff. He was methodical and very structured in what he did.
“He was knowledgeable about the game and analysed everything. Whether he got success or not, I picked up a lot just by working with someone from a different culture.
“And what I learned was that I might have loads of plans for here at Morton in the future. But ultimately, it’s about getting results. Get results and then you can start making changes elsewhere. You have to realise there will be difficult times. That’s when you need a good support network.”
A cultural issue?
It’s interesting to see how much Johansson rates Caixinha as a coach. The former Gers manager seemed to lead from one disaster to another, and certainly didn’t come across as organised.
One of the key elements that Johansson spoke about here was the cultural differences. Could Caixinha have been a success had he not tried to integrate methods from his own culture? Rangers are certainly in better hands now as they look towards the future under Steven Gerrard, that’s for sure.
Johansson seems to believe that Caixinha had plenty of positives to his skillset. Rangers fans failed to see many of them, with the Portuguese seemingly being far too over-analytical at times. Whether he was too detailed or not is up for debate, but there’s no denying he couldn’t continue as Rangers manager.
Meanwhile, it’ll be interesting to see how Johansson does in his first job at Morton. Alongside Peter Houston, the Rangers great is struggling for consistency early on. But Johansson will need time to take over from Ray McKinnon’s mess that he left behind.
Could the Ibrox hotseat one day be calling for Johansson? So long as he doesn’t bring in Caixinha as his number three then who knows?
