PEDRO Caixinha believes his Rangers squad are already showing that they have the character to bounce back from their humbling Europa League exit to Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn - but admits he is desperate to add two more signings before the season gets underway in earnest. While the Ibrox side would clearly prefer to be preparing for continental competition right now, rather than playing friendlies like this, the Rangers manager professed himself content with a 1-1 draw at Ibrox against a big-spending Marseille side who finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season.
Considering he hadn’t been seen in public since losing on aggregate to the fourth best side in Luxembourg 18 days ago, this has to be construed as a step in the right direction. Next up is a mini tour of England which will see the club train at Bisham Abbey and play further friendlies against Watford and Sheffield Wednesday - both of whom have Portuguese managers - as they build towards their campaign opener against Motherwell on August 6. While yesterday’s match saw promising debuts from Bruno Alves and Graham Dorrans, Caixinha said he hoped to have a full compliment of 11 summer signings by the time the transfer window closes, with Hearts’ Jamie Walker and Aberdeen’s Kenny McLean still thought to be the men on the club’s radar.
“It hasn’t been difficult to lift the players after Luxembourg,” said Caixinha. “If I fell from the highest building in the world in Dubai – the day after it I’d be the strongest guy in the world. I’m like that. Of course, we’re not pleased with what happened in Luxembourg but it’s in the past. We need to focus on what’s in front of us and the boys have been brilliant in trying to do that.
“Today we had five or six players together on the pitch for the first time. So I have to be pleased with what they did. And I’m not only talking about their quality of football. I’m talking about the quality of their character. It’s about their quality as men, with strong personalities. That’s what big teams are made of.
“We have our targets but the transfer window doesn’t close for a few more weeks. The chairman and board of directors have been doing a fantastic job on their side. We know what we want and together we’re going to get it. I won’t mention names but you identified two players and we need two more players. We’ll try to have them with us. If not the two, then at least one.”
One man who wasn’t spotted yesterday was Jordan Rossiter, the 20-year-old midfielder whose time at Ibrox thus far has been jinxed by injury. While one long-term injury victim Niko Kranjcar returned to grab a fine equaliser on the day, Caixinha revealed that Rossiter had ‘felt something on his knee’ but was still expected to report for training on Monday. All in all, he was confident Rangers would “have the rhythm, the game time and the momentum going into the Motherwell match on August 6”.
While friendly results are all good and well, that is when Kranjcar knows that the players can really start to atone for the ‘humiliation’ they had felt in Luxembourg. “We are all disappointed that we have to play a friendly, and not a Europa League game,” the Croat said. “This is a better result but I think Progres is still in the back of everyone’s head and we can’t wait for the start of the season to get that out of our mind.
“We were all humiliated after that game,” he added. “We all took it really, really deep. I don’t need anyone to start taking responsibility for myself. Myself and every other team-mate in that dressing room knows it is not good enough to lose to Progres.
“What is most important now – and I think we showed that here – is that we are gelling, we are gelling as a group. We brought Bruno and Graham in who are obviously massive pieces of the puzzle that weren’t there in that game. It already looks more serious, more as a team, more as a unit. Today’s performance is something we can build on.
“We have two good friendlies against Watford and Sheffield Wednesday coming up this week and hopefully we will be firing on all cylinders come August 6. That is when we have to show our character and start writing the wrongs.”
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