Pedro Caixinha can’t make his mind up about Barrie McKay.
The former Santos Laguna coach can rattle off an opinion on most things but has still to decide whether the £6m kid is worth a new Ibrox deal.
Under Mark Warburton McKay rejected a new contract believed to be worth an extra £500 per week and is understood to be looking for a new deal close to the £10,000 a week that Jordan Rossiter collects.
Brother Pedro can deliver a lecture on how Aberdeen will fare next season or the strengths of Ryan Jack but when it comes to offering Bazza a new contract he needs extra time to assess the position.
“If Barrie is waiting he needs to wait more for the club to come back to him,” the fifth best coach in Qatar told the Daily Record. “He is a great guy and a fantastic footballer but we are assessing him and we will give him an answer as soon as possible.
“Barrie has been more proactive in the last two games but I still want more from him.
“He has been a very important player for the last two matches, scoring twice like Joe Garner too.
“They are two players living a good moment and football is about good moments. We now need to extend that.
“What does he need to do more? He needs to be more proactive. The game is a lot of phases and stages and I want all the players to be keen on the game. If things are not coming they need to look for it.”
Brother Pedro added: “When I work with the players I can work two or three months with them but I always try to help them improve.
“When I’m saying something to one player, if he is going to stay here or even if he is going to go, I am trying to help him if he continues or not.
“If there’s something I believe he has to change it is to help him be a better player. So I am trying to help him independently if he is going to continue here or not.”
While he enjoys the sound of his own voice Caixinha is about to discover that the main motivation for players will be determined by the size of Dave King’s war-chest.
With the South African based criminal fire fighting on a number of fronts McKay remains on the contract that he signed in 2016 while playing in the Championship under Warbo.
After qualifying for the Champions League it’s understood that RB Leipzig have cooled their interest in McKay with a £500,000 deal to Nottingham Forest likely to be as good as it gets.
NOTE: McKay had a good 30 minutes v Mikael Lustig at the end of December but his team lost, again.