IT may have provided days and days of lurid headlines over here but Pedro Caixinha's Old Firm derby debut defeat and the frenzied fall-out from it created only "small news" back home in Portugal. Elsewhere that weekend, after all, the Portuguese sports papers had Jose Mourinho in action with Manchester United, a 1-1 draw in the Lisbon derby, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Andre Gomes being involved in Barcelona's breath-taking 3-2 El Clasico win. Having said that, there were still a few knowing looks when news filtered over that this 46-year-old firebrand former bull fighter from Beja had come out fighting over an apparent dressing room leak which had divulged some minor player unrest over his pre-season plans.

"The match made small news over here," said Antonio Pires, a sports journalist for O Jogo. "As did the row over what he wants for his players' vacation, according to what I read in the Scottish press. This doesn't surprise me at all because he is a very methodical and meticulous manager."

It is still only six weeks since Caixinha first set foot in Scottish football, preceded by tales of derring do in the bull-fighting arena. But things have reached a pretty pass already - in the Portuguese's pre-match press conference for the re-match against Celtic on Thursday he railed against what he thought was disrespect from the Scottish media, then reinforced the point by saying he was "a f***ing tough guy".

"He is a strong personality, no doubt about that, although I don't recall any particular episodes during his time back home in Portugal," said Pires. "He always wants to get over the message that he is in charge. He always comes to management with strong ideas. And the times we spoke to him he was always very focused on what he wanted, very ambitious. Even when he worked as a second coach [to Jose Peseiro] with Sporting Lisbon, he was still a very important member of the team with his own voice."

Surprise is perhaps too strong a word when it came to Caixinha arriving in Glasgow, considering he was mooted as an assistant to Vitor Pereira - now managing 1860 Munich - prior to the appointment of Mark Warburton a couple of years back. This is a nation which has produced no shortage of talented coaches and where this former manager of Leiria, Nacional, Santos Laguna and Al-Gharafa of Qatar ends up in the Portuguese pecking order remains to be seen. After Mourinho and Andre Villas Boas, Marco Silva of Hull City is the next Portuguese manager making waves in the English game, while Carlos Carvalhal of Sheffield Wednesday could also be managing in the Barclays Premier League next season.

"It is hard to say exactly where he [Caixinha] stands when you compare him with the greats of Portuguese coaching," said Pires. "He generally has a good impression amongst the clubs here and he did a very good job in Mexico with Santos Laguna which weren't historically one of the big teams. He is still young so I think he has chances. Some years ago, he almost came to Sporting to be the No 2 to Luiz Felipe Scolari. And maybe if he can win the Championship with Rangers he can get the chance to go forward again.

"It was not exactly a surprise that he went to Rangers because there had been some chat for a while that he would go there," he added. "I think the feeling this is a good step for him. He did well in Mexico and was in the Middle East, so he is looking now for the intermediate step in his career. He is an ambitious coach and everyone has always expected him to come back to Portugal one day or maybe another big club in Europe. People always expected him to go to a club with ambitions of playing in the European cups and he has the chance to do that now. But there is a big difference between Celtic and Rangers right now I think."