Pedro Caixinha was in a good mood when speaking to the Portuguese press last weekend, a little before being thrashed 5-1 at Ibrox by Celtic.
Talking to A Bola, the manager gave his first big interview to a Lisbon newspaper since taking charge of Rangers, and explained the start of his job at the Ibrox.
On his adaptation to Scotland, Caixinha said: “When I was in Mexico and Qatar I felt this distance more. In Europe it’s easier to bring the codfish, the pata negra (ham).
Getting Rangers back to their old level , and fighting with Brendan Rodgers, seems to be Caixinha’s priority, and that’s why his work is focused on the long term.
“To organise the club to take it back to the greatness to which it belongs. And more than a squad analysis is needed to understand the context: Rangers come from a desert crossing. Went up four divisions in five seasons.
“Now, five games from the end of the league, we lack two points to qualify for the Europa League qualification stage. On June 28th we’ll be playing the UEFA, we start to compete.”
And for the summer, Caixinha isn’t thinking of long vacations. Neither for him or for the players.
Asked about when he’ll get back to work, he said: “June 5th. I’ll give a two-week vacation to the squad, from May 22nd to June 4th, I can’t do more.
“If we had got to the Cup final, it would be even shorter, only one week, but we couldn’t.”
Caixinha already knew he’d have to have big plans for next season, the result against Celtic will only have underlined that.
