Pedro Caixinha has walked straight into the trap set by Brendan Rodgers.
Last week the Celtic boss highlighted Sevco’s summer spending spree as a declaration of intent to take the title rather than beat Aberdeen into second place.
Spin aimed at generating season ticket sales had the Ibrox club splashing out £10m to bring in top stars from Mexico, Portugal and Columbia but those figures look highly debatable unless you are an international football agent.
Celtic ‘only’ spent £6m directly on Olivier Ntcham and Jonny Hayes although a hefty loan fee was spent to bring Patrick Roberts back from Manchester City.
Yesterday Caixinha decided to answer that claim and using the research of the Ibrox PR machine hit back at the treble winning Celtic boss.
“Is it mind games?” the fifth best coach in Qatar asked in The Sun. “It depends on who you are playing these games with, it only works when you say something and think it’s going to affect other decisions or choices but it does not affect me.
“It is not my concern, I just want to help to take the club in the right direction to get back to the position where it needs to be.
“I don’t need to respond to what he said, what he thinks or whatever. I just need to focus on my team, my club and the investment we’ve made over the last five seasons.
“I arrived during last season so I don’t know what Celtic spent at the beginning of that season when he arrived, so I ask you to compare it, then you’ll have your answer but it is not my concern.
“One thing I need to agree with is that money brings quality, not only in football.
“If I have money I can go to one store and buy the best products, and normally the best products are more expensive than the others. That’s the law of the market. But I don’t want to discuss budgets or what’s more or less expensive.
“I’m just here to discuss a football match which we are totally focused on winning.
“That’s what really matters to me. I’m not concerned what others say. It doesn’t matter if someone says we have more investment so we should be title contenders.”
During his media conferences Caixinha made no mention of Kenny Miller who was given a couple of days off to spent time with his family rather than be involved in the League Cup thriller with Partick Thistle.
