Kenny Miller has issued a warning that life may not be quite as hunky dory under the bonnet of the Caixinha revolution.
The veteran striker was surprisingly given another 12 month contract late last season and is probably the most likely caretaker manager once Caixinha’s limitations are exposed.
Despite Caixinha telling a Portuguese newspaper than 14 players will be leaving only Joe Garner has joined Pip Senderos and Clint Hill out the exit door.
No matter what the fifth best coach in Qatar tries Micky O’Halloran, Andy Halliday, Jason Holy, Matt Crooks and Josh Windass are still under contract until 2020. None of those players will get a three year contract close to the generous terms agreed by Mark Warburton.
With that rump still at the club Caixinha is in the process of assembling a Latin XI to take the title from Celtic.
Miller knows the corridors of power at Ibrox and the feelings inside the dressing room and fired a not so subtle message to his manager and this summer’s Galactico signings.
“If somebody wants to come in and take my place then they’re going to have to be better than me,” the former Vancouver Whitecaps goal ace told the Daily Record.
“And I’m not going to allow that to happen easily. If you come in and prove you’re better, you’ve got the jersey. If you don’t, you won’t. Some people might be saying, ‘we’re bringing this guy in who plays in my position’. Well, just be better.
“You’re at a big club, every season there’s going to be new players brought in. If it’s in your position, you’ll have to be better than him.
“You have to show that you’re better equipped to do that role. You can’t mump and moan because we’re signing players.
“If you look at the balance of the signings so far, there isn’t really a Scottish core. We need to try and keep a level of British and Scottish players, who know what’s required to play here but in saying that, they have to be good enough.
“Clearly, we needed to sign better players, going by how far back we were in the league last season.”
As he demonstrated by the campaign to get a new contract Miller knows how to manipulate public opinion through well chosen but discrete media links.
When results to against Caixinha there will be a very cheap and in-house solution that meets the Real Rangers man criteria after the disastrous reigns of Brother Pedro and Mark Warburton.
With the UEFA deadline for the first round of the Europa League qualifiers coming at 11pm tomorrow it looks like Caixinha will have just four new players available for the opening match of the season on June 29.
