In the wake of the defeat to Motherwell in the semi-final on Sunday, some serious questions not only need to be asked but also need to be answered. The board appointed Pedro Caixinha after the bizarre exit of Mark Warburton and let’s be honest, every single one of us had no clue who this guy was but as we always do we backed our man. The board also backed him in the summer and he’s rumoured to have spent near 10 million on the players coming in, so the fans had an air of confidence if you will, maybe even a slight cockiness that we might finally be in a position to compete again.
Well looks how that’s turned out, you could cry if it wasn’t so funny. Pedro clearly understands his roles and responsibilities on and off the pitch. I honestly like the guy, I really do, but I’m almost certain I said the same about Warburton.
First of all, who appointed him? Graeme Park is apparently behind the hiring of both Warburton and Caixinha, while I believe the appointment of Mark was a risk worth taking as he had a great reputation down south but it didn’t work out. So then we move onto Pedro, we clearly were not in a position to roll the dice again but that was the choice by the board and yet again it looks to be backfiring.
Football is a results business and guess what, we’re struggling. We haven’t won three games in a row under Pedro and coupled with the shambles in Europe, it’s been a right mixed bag so far. I can’t argue that Motherwell didn’t deserved to win on Sunday, we had our chances and failed to capitalise on them, that’s football. I’ve said all along defeats happen but it was the manner of the defeat that annoys me. A few of the players stood out as a complete waste of a shirt.
This is where it poses a complete conundrum for me, are we going to blame the board, the manager or the players? An ever-looping vicious circle that has a fair argument for each option but ultimately the board have some explaining to do. The powers that be decided to gamble with giving Pedro the managers vacancy and I still struggle to understand the logic behind their choice, he had managed Santos Laguna in the Mexican league Liga MX, which was touted as a far superior level to what was on offer in Scotland but I’ve yet to see any of that superior technical ability in the players purchased from Mexican teams.
I don’t want to seem like I’m hating on our manager and I don’t want him to fail, of course I’ll back him and the team but something is going to give sooner or later. Results have been poor and the obvious unrest in the dressing room with the “mole” situation is only perpetuating the situation. None of these make good reading and the pressure is piling on the manager and the board.
With Dave King recently telling the courts he doesn’t have the money for the legally required share purchase, he now runs the very real risk of some serious implications with being unable to fund the purchase of shares. Adding fuel to the fire with more rumours of Murray trying to slither back into the boardroom through a consortium of backers.
So, all in all its just not getting any better at Ibrox and it there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. I feel we are in the scenario of we are fucked it we do and fucked if we don’t. While that might sound extreme I’m finding it difficult to come up with a solution. A new manger won’t paper over the cracks in an underperforming squad and a new board just won’t happen overnight.
For me the chairman should be at the helm of his company and in this case his club, not sat in his luxury house in South Africa dining on freshly slaughtered lions and quaffing his vast and expensive wine collection.
I agree this might seem flippant and dismissive of the situation but I can assure you I’m not trying to belittle the point im trying to make. I’m fully aware of the graveness of the current predicament, I’ve run out of excuses for both chairman and manager but as I’m sat here trying to put this all together I’ll still be in Edinburgh on Saturday supporting my team regardless of how bad it is on or off the field.
Am I glutton for punishment or just brainwashed? Probably both.