GERS WILL GO BRITISH
fate. Chairman Dave King led an emergency meeting yesterday morning where the board axed Caixinha following a disastrous seven-month reign.
Managing director Stewart Robertson will draw up a list of candidates over the weekend after telling the Portuguese yesterday lunchtime his services were no longer required.
Rangers have no margin for error and Caixinha’s departure opens the door for approaches to be made to potential targets including Derek McInnes, Tommy Wright, Davie Moyes, Michael O’Neill and Alex McLeish.
King will pay compensation, if required, to land the new boss who will also be handed a sizeable transfer kitty to bolster the squad in the January transfer window.
Rangers will move for someone who understands the club and won’t be fazed by the idea of challenging Celtic.
Former Ibrox chairman Johnston took part in the board teleconference yesterday morning.
He said: “I don’t think it was a fait accompli, there was a lot of sharing of opinions and viewpoints and lots of questions asked and answered.
“It wasn’t a quick three-minute call but the decision was obviously something that was under consideration for a while, we are not deaf and blind.
“My own view is we have a better squad than people think and perhaps a new management team will get more out of them.
“A lot of Rangers fans thought the players we brought in during the summer were actually positive. I don’t think we have seen the best of them and I’d like to think the new management team will be able to get more out of them.
“In many ways that’s what Celtic did when they brought in Brendan Rodgers. They had good players but they brought in a guy who got more out of their players.
“They didn’t add too many players to their club but they got whole lot better results once they brought in Rodgers.”
Johnston confirmed Mark Allen, appointed director of football in the summer, will have a hands-on role in appointing the new boss.
He said: “The immediate plan is to go back to Graeme Murty, which is the obvious thing to do at this stage while we evaluate the candidates. Needless to say there will be a lot of people contacting us and there will be some people we will contact.
“Obviously you want to do this as soon as possible but you want to get it right so I wouldn’t want to have any conjecture about the timeframe.”
Rangers will now look for someone with the mental strength to cope with the demands of the office, an area in which Caixinha struggled after becoming embroiled in rows with refs, fellow managers and even his own players.