Michael Stewart has delivered an incredible assassination job on Pedro Caixinha and his £10m flops.
The former Hearts midfielder has quickly earned a reputation as an outstanding pundit while others skirt around the main issues.
It makes for painful news but the reality is that six months into his reign Sevco are further away from stopping 10-in-a-row than they were under Mark Warburton.
The former city trader had a side that was close to competing for second place but wasn’t lumbered by too many expensive contracts.
With the help of his close friend and agent Pedro Mendes, the next Ibrox boss faces a nightmare trying to shift the expensive recruits brought in over the summer.
Ipswich Town are believed to be interested in Alfredo Morelos but beyond that it’ll require costly pay offs if Caixinha’s successor is to make a fist of the battle for second place.
When he arrived in June Carlos Pena was a £3.5m creative midfielder, this morning his value is down to £2.5m with Caixinha unlikely to risk the chunky Mexican again any time soon.
“In Carlos Pena, he fielded a player in the No?10 position who looked like he couldn’t run,” Stewart told Sun readers. “The Mexican was all over the place. He was YARDS short of the Celtic midfielders, who were quicker and sharper.
“Pena was like a man down. He basically contributed nothing and for £2.5m, that is nowhere near good enough.
“The midfielder looks unfit but, if he was a midfield magician, Rangers could get away with playing him. If he was opening defences up all the time, you could overlook his physical issues.
“Yet Pena didn’t ever look capable of hurting Celtic. He was terrible.”
Turning to the rest of Caixinha’s flops he added: “Of the eight new signings that featured, only Alfredo Morelos really looked the part.
“Fabio Cardoso was awful and really let down the excellent Ross McCrorie beside him. The kid can be proud of his display.
“Pena was non-existent and, while Graham Dorrans and Ryan Jack are sensible signings, they never looked like dominating an energetic, powerful Celtic midfield.
“Daniel Candeias plays well in fits and starts but there was no real end product, while sub Eduardo Herrera offered nothing.
“Dalcio? He has already vanished and, while Bruno Alves was missed, there are very few success stories from those 11 players.
“The squad overhaul was designed to bring Rangers closer to Celtic — but it looks like the bulk of that cash has been wasted.
“It all points to a lack of joined-up thinking when those signings were being made — the majority BEFORE Rangers appointed a director of football.
“The money Rangers have spent is not an insignificant amount in Scottish terms but where is the value?”
After five years of avoiding the truth it seems certain to be a long winter of discontent at Ibrox with only the generosity of Douglas Park keeping the lights on.
