Pedro Caixinha has been warned that goodwill from the blue room will dry up if his side are turned over by Celtic on Saturday.
The smooth talking Portuguese boss has lived a charmed life so far with a ban on green boots and painting We Are The People across the stadium helping to deflect from some awful results.
Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen have all been celebrating in the away dressing room under Caixinha’s watch while losing to Progres Niederkorn in the Europa League increased this season’s losses by an extra £6m.
Rather than warn Caixinha directly the message comes from Keith Jackson of the Daily Record who has long since been a trusted friend of various boardroom regimes.
When Dave King swept to power in March 2015 Paul Murray went out of his way to praise the courageous journalism of the Record to bring about change.
In today’s edition Jackson writes: “For Pedro Caixinha the moment of truth has arrived.
“If failing to win a first Glasgow derby of the season on Friday night was not ominous enough, then the prospect of dealing with another two of them in the space of five days, ought to have the Portuguese manager reaching for the panic pills.
“And yet, even though Celtic are now appearing on his horizon, smacking their lips with bad intentions, the man in charge of Rangers seems surprisingly serene.
“It’s almost as if he doesn’t quite understand what’s about to come his way but Caixinha has been here long enough by now to realise that his own professional credibility – and perhaps even a great deal more than that – is about to go on the line.
“And for that reason it would seem like a mistake for Caixinha to take the faith of his superiors – and of chairman Dave King in particular – for granted.
“He has tested their patience a little too often during his first six months in the job and King has already displayed his ruthless side in the manner with which he oxtered Mark Warburton out of the back door earlier this year.
“No, now would not seem like a good time to annoy this chairman or to misread the temperature of the blood inside the Rangers boardroom.
“If he is on the wrong end of another heavy beating from King’s nemeses across the city on Saturday afternoon then it’s absolutely certain to be stony cold.
Jackson adds: “Should he crash out of one competition and then suffer something even remotely similar to the 5-1 thrashing Celtic inflicted upon him on their last visit across the Clyde then it would come as no surprise at all if he’s loading up his caravan this time next week and looking for his next adventure.”
Looking towards a likely successor it seems that the real Rangers men hovering around are in for disappointment with the next man tasked with stopping ten in a row already familiar with the challenge.
“His case has not been helped any by the job Derek McInnes continues to do at Pittodrie, despite his side reaching the end of a cycle in the summer,” Jackson warns. “If McInnes was viewed as the obvious option at the time of Caixinha’s arrival then the credentials of the Aberdeen manager to be his replacement have only been wrapped in an iron cloak during the intervening period.
“All of which means Caixinha has to start delivering something of substance. Something more than gimmicks, empty rhetoric or promises of jam tomorrow.”
