BRENDAN Rodgers, the Celtic manager, admitted last night he had never heard of Pedro Caixinha, the Portuguese coach who was yesterday cleared to take charge at Rangers by Al-Gharafa in Qatar.

Caixinha and his agent have spent the past week in Doha attempting to negotiate the terms of his departure from the Middle East club and have finally reached an agreement with chairman Hamad bin Thamer.

The 46-year-old is expected to arrive in Scotland today to complete his move and will take in the Ibrox club’s Ladbrokes Premiership match against Celtic at Parkhead on Sunday from a seat in the main stand.

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers on the "land of no sleep" his Rangers counterpart Graeme Murty has entered

The appointment of the little-known coach ahead of the likes of Derek McInnes, Alex McLeish, Alex Neil and Gary Rowett has taken Scottish football by surprise and Rodgers confessed the name is a new one for him.

Asked what he knew of the former Uniao Leiria, Nacional and Santos Laguna manager, the Northern Irishman replied: “I have never heard of him.”

Meanwhile, Rodgers has praised his Celtic players for ignoring Rangers “propaganda” last summer about how the Ibrox club were going to win the Scottish title this season and focusing fully on their own games.

The Ibrox club put on a huge tifo display in the Sandy Jardine Stand before kick-off in their opening Ladbrokes Premiership match against Hamilton Academical in August which read “Going for 55” and also used that phrase in their marketing literature.

The Championship winners have, despite signing Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar in the close season, failed to perform in the top flight in the 2016/17 campaign and currently sit in third spot in the table six points behind second-placed Aberdeen.

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers on the "land of no sleep" his Rangers counterpart Graeme Murty has entered

But if Celtic defeat their city rivals - for the fourth time in as many meetings - at home this weekend they will go 36 points clear with 10 games remaining.

“They obviously thought they could win the league,” said Rodgers. “Let’s be clear that when I came up here - after the Scottish Cup semi-final game and their promotion - all the propaganda before a ball was kicked was that before the end of the season they’d be going for 55.

“So they obviously had the genuine feeling that they could win the league. But we’ve just done our work, quietly prepared the team, worked on the players’ development and improvement and it’s taken us to this point. This game is one that could put us clear of them and we move on.

“I just think that was the message that was out there from them. It’s pretty clear that was the message, but all you can do as a team is your own work and our players have been brilliant at that. I wasn’t surprised that message was out there because I was new into it and I had no thought for it either way.”

Read more: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers on the "land of no sleep" his Rangers counterpart Graeme Murty has entered

Meanwhile, Rodgers has revealed that James Forrest, the Scotland winger who has been sidelined since the 2-0 win over Hamilton last month, is in contention to start the league meeting with Rangers on Sunday.

“He’s trained all week and looks good,” he said. “He’s been outstanding all season in the main and he was very good the last time we played Rangers at Celtic Park. It’s good to have him in the squad and available.”