John Hartson: Why Rangers players would have been sniggering at Caixinha
By Alex Stevens
Rangers player would have been "sniggering" at Pedro Caixinha's early attempts to lay down the law at Ibrox.
That is the verdict of Celtic legend John Hartson as he assessed how the dressing room would have reacted to the little known Portugese's explanation of what he would do if they stepped out of line.
Caixinha, 46, promised that the Rangers players would see a totally different side of him and that he would be like the "devil".
"I’d have loved to have seen the Rangers’ boys faces when Pedro Caixinha told them they better not step out of line or they’d think he was the devil," wrote Hartson in his weekly Scottish Sun column. "There would have been a few sniggers at the back of the room, that’s for sure.
"But as players there’s not a lot you can do when your gaffer comes out with a line like that. All you can do really is accept it and take him at his word.
"But I tell you what. The new Rangers manager better be able to live up to that image if and when someone lets him down.
"If Caixinha does see himself as a manager not to be messed with then he has to be able to back that up when the time comes.
"Right now the lads at Ibrox will be taking him at face value. But if there’s an issue and he doesn’t react in the way he insisted he would, then Caixinha’s going to leave himself wide open."
Caixinha had an excellent start as Rangers manager when he first match in charge resulted in a 4-0 Scottish Premiership win over struggling Hamilton at Ibrox on Saturday.
Goals from Emerson Hyndman, Clint Hill, Martyn Waghorn (penalty) and Lee Wallance helped to gives Rangers hope of clawing back Aberdeen in the race to the runners-up spot behind runaway leaders Celtic.
The Dons won 2-0 against Hearts earlier in the day, which means Rangers are still eight points adrift of second place despite increasing their own points haul to 50.
But the Light Blues have taken four points from their last two matches after restoring pride with a landmark 1-1 draw against Celtic at Parkhead last weekend.
In other Rangers news, one of the club's midfielders has agreed the terms of a mammoth new deal.
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