TWELVE months ago, Rangers were toiling in the league, had brought in some big name players who weren’t up to it, had assembled a first-team squad that just wasn’t fit for purpose, had a manager who people had seen through as being tactically inept, and, who talked in riddles. And then they lost in a semi-final of the League Cup.

A year on from Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha ticked each of the boxes listed above. Nothing, despite all the spin, hype, posturing and money, has changed at Ibrox in a year. Actually, that isn’t strictly true.

For Rangers have gone backwards under Caixinha, regressed instead of progressed, to such an extent that yesterday, Dave King and the Rangers board called time on his stay in Glasgow. To be honest, it was no real shock, and that in itself is another sad indictment of where Rangers find themselves currently.

Read more: Alastair Johnston: Incoming Ibrox boss can bring out the best in Rangers - like Brendan Rodgers did at Celtic​

Caixinha hadn’t been able to get near Celtic, or match Aberdeen. But it was falling behind Motherwell that was too much to take.

Motherwell, a club who have had their own managerial disasters of late, appear to have appointed the right guy in Stephen Robinson, who has transformed things at Fir Park on about a tenth of the budget Caixinha had to operate with.

Motherwell, League Cup finalists after beating Rangers on Sunday in every department, and who for good measure in midweek, went third in the Premiership table, ahead of Rangers. That just isn’t acceptable of a Rangers team, of any Rangers manager, and in particular, one who the Ibrox board sanctioned as being the best candidate for the job after they jettisoned Warburton. He had to go.

Yet Caixinha, driving out of the training ground, was still saying he was in charge, still the man for the job. He wasn’t; he never was. He was kidding himself on, and the evidence of that was all around, particularly in the last week. How could he honestly think he could turn things about with players he publicly slaughtered on Monday. Were they going to start playing for him, and turning in a level of performance we had not seen regularly, if at all, since the summer? The answer came on Wednesday night.

Read more: The end of a strange seven-month affair at Rangers as Dave King moves on from Pedro Caixinha​

After being beaten up, and bashed up, and knocked out by Motherwell, Caixinha and the Rangers support needed to see a response, a reaction, some passion and desire, a 4-0 win against the bottom club in the league, and a statement of intent that said we can get through this, and get better. Instead, what we witnessed was another inept offering, a level of fragility – in terms of commitment and combativeness – unbecoming of any team wearing a Rangers shirt. What we witnessed was a frail,1-0 lead, way in to stoppage time, being converted into a red card, ten men, and two points tossed away to a team who had only just changed manager themselves.

But, Kilmarnock registered a response that meant they could go to Ibrox, nearly full on the night, and grind out a point. Which team showed they wanted it more? The same question was asked at Hampden at the weekend, and both times, it wasn’t Rangers.

That was a Rangers team assembled by Caixinha. They were his players, he recruited them and he blew his budget on them. He told us everyone happy and onside, playing in a method prescribed by the coach. Yet, who did Rangers rip it up against this term. Maybe Dundee at Ibrox, maybe St Johnstone on a Friday night? Yes, it’s that easy to count.

Read more: Barry Ferguson: Next Rangers boss has to know the club inside out

Why therefore, would Dave King or the Rangers board – other than to save face over having made another horrendous appointment – have given Caixinha more time, or worse still, more money.

Caixinha bought Eduardo Herrera for a reputed £1.5m. He is 29, allegedly the finished article, who against Motherwell in a cup semi-final, when it was going horribly wrong and you needed someone to make a real impact, got 15 minutes. For that money – or not much more - Rangers could probably have had Louis Moult, Jamie Walker and Kenny McLean. They could have had them, but would the system or formation adopted by Caixinha have helped them?

We are talking about a coach who, in his hour of need at Hampden, thought the only tactical change required was to push Daniel Candeias from right to left.

Read more: The weird and wacky world of the caravan man: Pedro Caixinha's most memorable quotes at Rangers

I wanted Pedro Caixinha to succeed, and to get the time – even the luck – to turn things around. It never happened, and that was down to him.

But he never got the magnitude of the Rangers job, because he should never have got a job of that magnitude. That wasn’t his fault. The blame lies with the Rangers board.

Caixinha was a disaster. Rangers and Dave King can’t afford another.