Soccer

Pedro Caixinha given permission to speak to Rangers over manager's job

Graeme Murty will be in charge of Rangers for this weekend's clash with Celtic, but the club have stepped up their interest in Pedro Caixinha to be their next permanent manager
Graeme Murty will be in charge of Rangers for this weekend's clash with Celtic, but the club have stepped up their interest in Pedro Caixinha to be their next permanent manager Graeme Murty will be in charge of Rangers for this weekend's clash with Celtic, but the club have stepped up their interest in Pedro Caixinha to be their next permanent manager

RANGERS have moved a major step closer to appointing a new manager after main target Pedro Caixinha was granted permission by his club to move to Glasgow.

Qatar Stars League side Al Gharafa announced on their official Twitter account that they had agreed a deal to release the Portuguese coach from his contract.

Caixinha could now arrive in Scotland to finalise terms with Rangers ahead of Sunday's trip to Celtic Park, but Graeme Murty is expected to continue in a caretaker role for the derby clash.

Al Gharafa stated that the deal was in their financial interests, especially with Caixinha's contract due to expire in 45 days. And they added that Caixinha's desire to join Rangers outweighed their appetite to retain his services.

The 46-year-old – a trained bullfighter – emerged as Rangers' number one choice to replace Mark Warburton last week, but a deal could not be struck quickly enough for him to be appointed in time to prepare for Sunday's game against the runaway Ladbrokes Premiership leaders.

Rangers' recruitment search was also derailed by their failure to land Ross Wilson as director of football, with the Scot deciding to stay as Southampton's head of scouting and recruitment.

The Govan club had intended to fill that new role first, but their hunt for a manager became more pressing, although Murty followed two consecutive losses with victories over St Johnstone and Hamilton.

Caixinha moved to Qatar in 2015 after a successful spell with Santos Laguna, a Mexican club with close links to Celtic. He previously managed Uniao de Leiria and Nacional in his homeland after spells on the coaching staff at the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Panathinaikos, Rapid Bucharest and Saudi Arabia.

With their new boss likely to be in the stand, the Rangers players will now have an added incentive to perform well at Celtic Park – where they lost 5-1 in September – and skipper Lee Wallace admits they have plenty to prove as they bid to avoid a fourth defeat against their city rivals this season.

Wallace told RangersTV: "There were a lot of questions going into the last two games. We hadn't beaten St Johnstone this season and we knew they were going to be hard to beat and be difficult opponents.

"We managed to win that game though and took that momentum into Saturday and we won quite emphatically. That certainly got our confidence up. The training has been bright and we are now looking forward to what will be another tough challenge.

"But it's why we are in the game. It's a global fixture – a great fixture to go out there and try to show what we are about and answer a few questions, and to go there and try and win a game.

"We still have a lot to prove in general, not just in this game on Sunday. I think I've maybe just said privately to a couple of the lads that we still have a long way to go and we can't be too happy off the back of two wins at home and scoring six goals and, while the dressing room is happy and we are in a better mood, we still have to realise we have a long way to go.

"We have a lot of questions to answer and come Sunday there will be a range of different questions, because of the magnitude of the task at hand.

"But it's a challenge we are all looking forward to and we definitely have generated a bit more belief in ourselves as individuals, and as a team, that we can go there and put on a positive performance."

Rangers will be without Rob Kiernan after the central defender failed to overturn his red card for a tackle from behind on St Johnstone forward Graham Cummins. Danny Wilson is now likely to come in as Kiernan begins a two-match suspension.