THESE blooming foreigners, coming over here, trying to improve our football teams and respecting our culture. Who do they think they are? In a week when Britain moved closer to severing its ties with the European Union, one continental living in Scotland did his best to restore diplomatic relations between the island and the mainland.

Pedro Caixinha’s focus remains on trying to rebuild Rangers, and the thoroughness of his preparation and analysis suggests a man determined to do so to the best of his ability. When not working, however, the Portuguese and his backroom staff hope to learn more about the country in which they have chosen to base themselves for the foreseeable future.

Caixinha has enjoyed a peripatetic coaching career, one that has involved stints in countries as diverse as Mexico, Qatar, Romania and Greece. At each stop he has tried to soak up some of the local culture, partly because he simply likes to explore his surrounds but also because he believes it helps him do his job better.

“Football is a microcosm of society,” he said. “So if you know the society, you will get to know the football there better, too.”

There are days, however, when he switches off from football altogether, something which must be virtually impossible for the manager of one of the biggest football clubs in the country. Caixinha, though, thinks it is important.

“We didn’t come here just to get to know Scotland,” he said. “We came here to work and win. Winning costs you a lot of work. We arrive at 7am and leave at 7pm in the evening every day.

“But on our days off we want to get to know Scotland. It is an amazing country, a fantastic country. I think they call it the best small country in the world. And I believe that. In all the places I have had the pleasure to work I have tried to get to know the country and the people, too, as that helps me.

“I like to switch off when I’m not working. I switch off my mobile, my laptop. I switch off football. And I spend time with my family as I have to give them that attention. I like to travel. I like to go to good restaurants and have good meals.

“I haven’t found a nice Portuguese restaurant yet. The day before the Celtic game Pedro Mendes [the former Rangers player who is his agent] took me to a place that is owned by a Portuguese and we tasted some of the food. But it wasn’t a real Portuguese restaurant like we had in Qatar and Mexico. I hear, though, there is one near Hampden so maybe they sell good codfish there. Maybe we can go there to celebrate after the [Scottish Cup] semi-final!”

His travels have taken him to some of Scotland’s more specialist sights, the places rarely mentioned in the guidebooks. He spent Friday night at the salubrious hotspot that is Dundee’s Dens Park, and may take in the Hearts versus Celtic encounter at Tynecastle this afternoon.

“Maybe I can go,” he said. “If I have time I will maybe go but it is not on my plan just now. I like to see and feel the stadiums in the first person. We are just starting so I need to live it and experience it.”

One ground he will definitely be at this week is Rugby Park where on Wednesday night Rangers will play the first away game of his tenure. Kilmarnock’s artificial surface hasn’t always been to everyone’s liking but Caixinha is not one for excuses.

"It's a different surface. But if Fifa gives you the licence to play it, and the surface is evolving, it means it's almost the same as playing on grass. In my experience in Qatar, all the pitches were natural grass and in Mexico one club, Tijuana, was artificial. I'm not going to push players to work here on our artificial surfaces indoor or outside to prepare for the game on Wednesday. They know how to deal with it.

“There is a warm-up area to get that adaptation. You need to adapt, especially about the speed of the ball when it hits the ground, the height of the rebound. But all the rest should be OK. There are guys, as you know, who normally when they have injury problems - especially knee problems - have this thing that they have worries about injuring themselves again. So you need to deal with that. But the rest is all the same.

“The weather is different in Scotland but when we were kids we would put down two stones and play five goals, then change ends, and it ends at 10 and that was on the street. So we need to be ready to play on all surfaces and adapt in all weather conditions.”