Pedro Caixinha gave Ross McCrorie his chance in Rangers’ first-team and the defender hasn’t looked back since.
Ross McCrorie’s Rangers career has been short but sweet so far. The highly-rated centre-back only made his senior bow in a Scottish League Cup quarter-final clash against Partick Thistle in September but has barely been out of the side since.
An impressively assured performance in his league debut against Old Firm rivals Celtic came just four days later. And McCrorie has even managed to force veteran Portuguese defender Bruno Alves, arguably Rangers’ most eye-catching summer signing, out of the starting XI in recent weeks.
While the departed manager Pedro Caixinha won’t be remembered particularly fondly for his unstable seven month reign at Ibrox, the tough-talking coach could at least take credit for the rise of McCrorie at Rangers.
“Ross McCrorie is going to be one of the best centre halves in history, not just for this club but for this country,” Caixinha told the Daily Record immediately after McCrorie’s debut in that 3-1 win at Partick two months ago.
And while the 19-year-old has a long, long way to go before he can claim legendary status for Rangers and Scotland, he is less than half a season into his professional career after all, there’s little doubting that McCrorie is one of the most promising youngsters to emerge through Auchenhowie in recent years.
The Scottish Sun is now reporting that McCrorie is set to be rewarded with an extended contract until 2021 – with a hugely improved pay-packet. Tying down the centre-back is an astute decision as his progress surely will not have gone unnoticed.
Caixinha will be remembered at Rangers for falling out with key players, hammerings in the Old Firm derby and losing to Progres Niederkorn in the Europa League qualifiers. But McCrorie is a rare positive of Caixinha’s legacy.
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