PEDRO Caixinha, the new Rangers manager, last night confirmed he has started building towards next season after holding what he described as a constructive first meeting with Dave King, the Ibrox chairman and major shareholder, last week.
Caixinha, the former Uniao Leiria, Nacional, Santos Laguna and Al-Gharafa head coach, was appointed earlier this month despite not so much as speaking to King, the South Africa-based businessman who is the main stakeholder.
Stewart Robertson, the managing director, Andrew Dickson, the head of football administration, and Graeme Park, the board member, were responsible for bringing the little-known Portuguese coach to Glasgow.
However, Caixinha met King for a meal when the Castlemilk-born financier was back in his home city last week and revealed he is confident that everyone at the club is working together to deliver success in his first full term in charge in the 2017/18 campaign.
“It was fantastic and it was a pleasure to get to know Dave,” he said. “It was a fantastic dinner, I like Indian food. It was very interesting and things were really clear so we are getting in the same direction and on the same wavelength as what needs to be done from here until the beginning of next season.”
Caixinha is hopeful that Billy Gilmour, the hugely promising Rangers midfielder who has been attracting interest from Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea and who turns 16 in June, will still be at Ibrox by then.
He feels Gilmour will have a better chance to develop as a player and break into the first team at Rangers and has told the youngster’s parents that during talks with them.
“Billy is a fantastic guy,” he said. “We are assessing him and I have already met with the par-ents. It's a family decision. We are waiting and I hope Billy can stay with us. He is a 15-year-old boy with a bright future in front of him.
“If he is playing with guys four or five years older than him he makes a difference and that's really good. He anticipates the time and space he needs to perform the actions. I think it's important for him to be with us.
“He should stay with us and his parents to give him more time to grow and more time to get experience to arrive at the right level of football at, say, 22 or 23. I think it's important for him to stay and it's important for us that he stays.”
Meanwhile, Caixinha is hopeful he will be able to announce which local coach he is adding to his backroom team at Rangers at the end of next week after completing the interview process.
Caixinha is keen to add somebody with previous experience of playing at Ibrox to his coaching staff and has spoken to several contenders including John Brown, Barry Ferguson, Jonatan Johansson, Peter Lovenkrands and Alex Rae.
The Portuguese manager has a hectic schedule in the coming days with his team playing Motherwell at home tomorrow, Kilmarnock away on Wednesday night and Aberdeen away on Sunday, but he is poised to make his decision imminently.
However, he confirmed that Graeme Murty, the under-20 coach who impressed after taking charge of the first team on a temporary basis after Mark Warburton departed last month, was not being considered for the position.
“We haven't finished yet,” he said. “We are still assessing and next week we play Saturday, we play Wednesday, we play Sunday. I hope by the end of next week I have a decision. But the games are so close and they are going to be my priority.
“Maybe I will not bring someone in next week because I need to teach them everything. If not net week, then, I hope the week after.
“Graeme is already working with us. He is one of the Rangers coaches, he is with us. But he is not in this process of interviews. I never spoke about one single name here. I need to keep it confidential as a protection for the club, myself and the people involved.”
Caixinha, whose side take on Motherwell in a Ladbrokes Premiership game at Ibrox tomorrow, has spent the past fortnight working with the vast majority of his squad at Auchenhowie and stressed he had been impressed with their commitment and desire.
“The places I have been working before I arrived here are different,” he said. “The Qatari players are very skilful, they can do things. But I believe it is very difficult to transmit this passion to them. Mexican players are very skilful as well, but they don’t have the same level of professionalism.
“So in all places you have very good points and other points you are weaker on. Strengths and weaknesses. So you just need to balance these things. But if you ask me ‘do you prefer your players to be passionate’ then I totally agree.
“Because the only thing that isn’t negotiable with us is the attitude. If I have guys that are committed, they are committed to work. It’s easy to lead them from there.”
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