A FOREIGN manager hoping for an opening-day win at Fir Park after a summer of setbacks and wholesale change – we have seen this Rangers movie before. If it is too simplistic to label Pedro Caixinha the Portuguese Paul Le Guen, then there are certainly striking similarities. Caixinha will be hoping his story concludes with a happier ending.

Le Guen arrived at Ibrox in the summer of 2006 boasting a more impressive CV than Caixinha’s following years of success with Lyon, but that background did not spare him from suffering immediate teething troubles. A difficult pre-season trip to South Africa - that included Fernando Ricksen being sent home for “unacceptable behaviour” on the flight to Johannesburg – set the tone for a troubled few months. Beating Motherwell 2-1 on the first day of the league season offered early hope but it would soon be extinguished, Le Guen bowed and beaten long before his exit six months later.

Caixinha also heads to Fir Park today with a difficult summer behind him. Unlike Le Guen – who actually enjoyed some impressive results in the UEFA Cup – European football has not been kind to Caixinha. Given a month has now passed since that Europa League defeat to Progres Niederkorn, it will likely not impinge on how Rangers fare in their domestic fixtures but it is the sort of stain on a manager’s CV that often proves hard to remove. Back in 2006 Rangers had struggled the previous year making it inevitable that Le Guen would look to put his own stamp on matters. His transfer budget was not the biggest but the Frenchman had sufficient wiggle room to bring in 11 new players. Few were recognised names and, perhaps most pertinently for this comparison, comprised eight different nationalities arriving from six different countries. Out went many of the old guard, including several “Rangers men” in the shape of Alex Rae, Bob Malcolm and Gary MacKenzie. In this Tower of Babel of many tongues, it was perhaps not a surprise that Le Guen did not enjoy the smoothest of transitions.

Caixinha has rolled the dice this summer with a similar carefree attitude. In have come nine new players made up of five different nationalities and arriving from six diverse leagues. Like Le Guen’s signings, many have come from the manager’s homeland. Just as a French clique became inevitable back in 2006, so a Portuguese pack will invariably form this season, bringing those players closer to each other and their manager, while excluding others.Caixinha has admitted that it will take time for many of the new signings to settle in but he must hope it can happen in tandem with his team making a positive start to the campaign. If not it is a transfer policy that will fall further under the microscope. One Rangers fan in the dressing room, Andy Halliday, has been sent to Azerbaijan and replaced by another in Graham Dorrans. Six other British-born players have all moved on, too. There is undoubtedly a far greater cosmopolitan feel to the Ibrox dressing room now, similar to the changes made 11 years ago.

The summer difficulties and the squad upheaval, however, were only two of the contributory factors in Le Guen’s downfall. Most significant was the cabal of remaining Scottish players who were unable or unwilling to yield to his demands and methods. There were cultural difficulties, too, a grinding clash of French modernism and meticulous attention to detail, and the grim Scottish insistence on clinging to the old way of doing things. Looking for but not receiving sufficient backing from above, Le Guen soon realised this was not a battle of minds he was ever going to win.

Perhaps pre-empting the inevitable questions about his mentality should further adversity strike, Caixinha has painted himself as a “tough guy” and not one to suffer fools gladly. He has already endured an element of push-back from some of his players over his decision to reduce their close season break but he has made it clear he will do things his way, rather than be coerced into what his players want.

Of course, for any manager trying to bring about a revolution, achieving positive results will make the task easier. History tells us winning at Motherwell won’t guarantee him a long and prosperous future but it won’t do Caixinha any harm either.