Since getting appointed as Rangers manager a little over 6 months ago, Pedro Caixinha has taken his time in reinventing the Gers.
The Ibrox outfit have only lost one league game thus far this term, drawing 1 and winning the other 3. The Portuguese went on a recruiting spree during the summer transfer window, with 11 players arriving to join the squad that let about the same number of first team players go.
Caixinha’s transfer decisions divided opinions, with questions raised over the “ins” and “outs”.
However, with only 3 points separating Rangers from the top of the table, and also the possibility of stringing together 3 consecutive victories for the first time since his arrival at the Ibrox dugout, minds are gradually getting changed.
Beyond the results and togetherness highlighted by the new collective goal celebration is a lot of dedication from Caixinha and his coaching crew.
Home-grown, Portuguese, Central and South American contingents within the squad are all being bonded together, and the manager reveals he shows equal interest in their lives off the pitch, just as he does on it.
The manager claims he has to make sacrifice getting it done, as he now spends more time with the players than he does with his family.
According to Caixinha: “What does a player need to keep on a good moment? Is it for me to spend more time one-on-one with him, talking about everything except football? Maybe they need that sometime.
“Above the football player, you have a man. A social being, a human being, and he needs to be treated like that. If I don’t get this sort of relationship, then, maybe, the relationship is going to just be a professional relationship and I don’t want that to happen. I want them to be close to me, the way I am close to them.
“For example, when I am having an interview process with them, and I know that some of their sons or daughters are sick, I follow it up, the day after I say to them, ‘your son is better?’ Or, maybe, they have some sort of investment, a new house or they are building a new house, I follow the process.
“They are really my sons, and I spend more time with them than my real blood sons. That is the reality. I spend much more time here as a family than I do with my actual family. So that is the way we have to behave.”
