GEORGE BURLEY, the former Scotland manager, has laid the blame for Rangers’ humiliating and hugely damaging European exit at the door of the Ibrox directors insisting they should not have appointed Pedro Caixinha as manager in the first place.

Burley, who also managed Ipswich, Southampton, Derby and Hearts, believes the Rangers board took an unnecessary gamble on the replacement for Mark Warburton when there were perfect candidates in front of their eyes.

He feels a return for Alex McLeish or a move for Aberdeen’s Derek McInnes would have been infinitely more sensible to take Rangers forward.

As a manager who has taken his fair share of flak in his career, Burley can sympathise with Caixinha but he points to the stunning success of Celtic appointing Brendan Rodgers as compelling evidence why Rangers have got it so wrong.

The 61-year-old said: “I don’t blame Pedro at all. He’s only been there for a matter of months.

“Rangers made a huge decision. We know the club has been in disarray both financially and everything else for the last ten years or so.

“They’ve had a wee bit of stability, they reached the top league and then Mark Warburton left for whatever reason.

“Surely they should then have been looking for a safe pair of hands or a young Scottish manager with potential?

“They haven’t gone down that route so they are the only ones to blame.

“You can’t blame the manager, it’s a shame and it’s not right for the Scottish game or for Rangers.

“An option as a safe pair of hands would have been someone like Alex McLeish, surely?

“They could have had a young boss working with him.

“They could have brought in a young Scottish manager like Derek McInnes or at least a British manager.

“There are load of young Scottish managers with ability and there are experienced ones as well.

“It has to be about something you are going to build and I don’t think Rangers have the right building blocks there.”

In stark contrast, Rodgers enjoyed the most remarkable debut season of all-time leading Celtic to an invincible Treble and while it was beyond expectations, it was always going to be an astute appointment.

Burley said: “Look what’s happened with Celtic and Brendan Rodgers and how they’ve changed things.

“Brendan is building the club, he’s just brought in a young player from Ipswich, well he’s pinched him in all honesty, a 19-year-old with potential and he’ll pay a small amount at a tribunal so it shows he’s planning for the future.

“When a foreign manager comes in the first thing you know he’ll do is bring in foreign players. He doesn’t think about the players in the academy and look to develop them as he doesn’t know them.

“That’s not how a club is built. Jock Stein built Celtic, Sir Bobby Robson built Ipswich Town, Sir Alex Ferguson built Manchester United with the David Beckham’s, Paul Scholes and all the rest of them. That’s the way to build a club

“It’s not by changing it all around and bringing foreign players in.

“We are talking about someone who’s used to dealing with people with different mentalities.

“The mentality of a Scottish player compared to a Portuguese player or a Spanish player is different and that doesn’t change overnight.

“The way they train is different, the way they’ve been brought up is different as is the way they approach games. That doesn’t change overnight and I’m sure Pedro can’t change his philosophy and how he works with players. That’s completely foreign to what the players are used to.

“Rangers have taken a big risk and so far, it hasn’t worked and I don’t think it’s good for the Scottish game. Brendan Rodgers was a Celtic fan and he had a proven record so that wasn’t a gamble.

“But bringing in a Portuguese manager at this stage while Rangers still have a lot of work to do is a big gamble and so far it hasn’t worked.

“When I went to Hearts we had Scottish players, I was Scottish and I just added to what we had. Rangers are not at that stage in their process. I had four or five good Scottish internationals so I could build on that but Rangers are not in that position.”

George Burley was speaking ahead of the Betfred Cup group stages which are live on BT Sport 1.