Caixinha’s fate was down to so much more than Rangers’ Europa League exit

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The Glasgow Rangers winger believes European elimination saw to the Portuguese boss.

In a recent interview with Portuguese publication Record, Rangers player Daniel Candeias claimed that Pedro Caixinha’s Gers tenure was defined by their early exit from the Europa League, but there was surely more to it than that.

While it was a major blow for Rangers to bow out of Europe to Progres Neiderkorn, Caixinha could have still earned more time if he had got his side playing consistently and not made some very questionable summer signings.

The defeat to Progres was embarrassing but the arrival of players like Dalcio, Eduardo Herrera and Carlos Pena, coupled with some below-par showings in the Scottish Premiership, ultimately saw to the Portuguese boss.

All managers suffer giant-killings or the like at some point in their career and most live to tell the tale while Caixinha was not exactly in charge of a Rangers side at the peak of their powers.

The problem was that for every Graham Dorrans there was a Pena, for every Alfredo Morelos a Dalcio, and Rangers were not performing in the way expected of them as they bid to make up some of the ground on reigning champions Celtic.

You only need to look at the way Rangers have played under interim manager Graeme Murty to see what is possible with this squad.

That could have happened under Caixinha but it did not, and that is indicative of the manager’s inability to get Rangers playing the Gers way. He was not the man from the job from the outset, and his fate was sealed by far more than a single match.