FORMER Rangers striker Mark Hateley has urged Rangers’ new recruits to take a leaf out of the book of Walter Smith – Win every game and stay off the front page.
Pedro Caixinha’s team are already in week two of their new campaign preparations with a Europa League first round qualifier just two weeks away.
While some supporters may see the Euro jaunt as an excuse to see their team on foreign soil and for the squad to get some extra match fitness gained, nine-in-a-row hero Hateley says that’s simply not an option for the squad of ’17.
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Instead, he says nothing but going all out for victory after victory to secure a Europa League group stage place would do.
And the 55-year-old recalled how that mentality was instilled in him by his old gaffer Smith, calling on Caixinha’s side to do likewise.
“I think you go in it to win every game. Walter Smith used to say to us: win every game and stay off the front page. That was it, simple,” he said.
“That is where his skills came in. When you join Rangers, and Celtic you are expected to win every game. As Celtic came close to with their undefeated season which was an incredible achievement.
“We went 44 games, 10 in Europe, and I tell you it is a fantastic achievement. It is just keeping that going now.
“It is the same for every Rangers player, or Celtic player, coming into the club, you have to win. You see what the fans are like after five minutes. That’s it, then you are on you.”
The key to Rangers’ progression in Europe will not determine the success of the campaign for Caixinha. It will be the battles on home soil which will define his first full term at Ibrox.
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With that in mind, the Portuguese has wasted no time bringing in a host of new recruits including Bruno Alves, Dalcio and Ryan Jack to name but a few. According to Hateley, this is an imperative step to give Caixinha a fighting chance of making a go of improving on last season’s efforts, but only if the players he brings in are mentally up to the job.
“You need the right ones in now from day one at training, ideally,” he said. “Bruno Alves obviously is away at the Confederations Cup but he’ll come back fit because he is training and training every day. Whether he plays or not that’s another thing.
“He’s ticking over. He has the experience of 35 years of life, shall we say. Pedro will want as many as he could from the first day of training.
“Whether they will be a success or not it will be a matter of time before we know. Great players have come in, world stars, and fallen. It’s just how they take it; how they get their head around playing for Rangers. It’s hard to play in a team that has to win every game.”
He added: “He would want to bring his own players in – that was a given. So he was going to do that sooner or later. The fact that everybody is back early for the European situation that was a given, so he was going to have to do his work earlier. He goes on about the hard work, but that’s a given as well anyway.
Read more: Manchester City Academy chief Mark Allen set to become Director of Football at Rangers
“Players train, get fit and play. My hardest pre-season ever was at Rangers and then all we used to do was play Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday/Tuesday. We were playing 60-odd games a season. Fitness is a given.
“My son [Tom Hateley] was in Poland and they train there three times a day up till October. That is why Polish teams are superfit; international teams are superfit.
“It’s a given. Just because you only train once or twice, maybe, everybody moans if it is twice regularly, or three times. You’re a professional athlete so you train, and train hard.”
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