Pedro Caixinha Leaves Rangers

26 October 2017, 18:27

Rangers have parted company with manager Pedro Caixinha, the club have announced.

The Rangers board took the decision to end his troubled seven-month reign after they met for talks in the wake of Wednesday night's 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock.

Under-20s boss Graeme Murty will resume caretaker duties for the second time this year when the Light Blues travel to Edinburgh to face Hearts on Saturday.

The club released a statement confirming the 46-year-old's departure just after 3pm.

It said: "Rangers Football Club announce today that Pedro Caixinha has left the Club.

"The decision to part company with Pedro was taken after careful consideration and the search for a new manager will begin immediately.

"Pedro was appointed in March this year but results have been disappointing and not commensurate with the level of investment that was made available.

"Graeme Murty, head development squad coach, will take charge of the first-team in the interim, just as he did earlier this year.

"The priority is to appoint a new manager as quickly as possible, but the Board will take as much time as is necessary to secure the right person capable of representing Rangers and providing the brand of football supporters rightly expect.

"We, the Board, appreciate this is a difficult time for all Rangers supporters and we thank you for your patience and know Graeme and the players will receive your full backing in the days ahead.

"We thank Pedro and his backroom staff for their efforts and commitment and wish them well for the future."

The former Santos Laguna boss' days looked numbered as soon as Louis Moult struck twice to hand Motherwell victory in Sunday's Betfred Cup semi-final.

Victory over Kilmarnock would have bought him a few more days but chairman Dave King - back in Scotland for a rare visit - decided enough was enough when Caixinha's team threw away their 1-0 lead in a shambolic final five minutes.

The result seemed to sum up the Portuguese's spell in charge of Gers, which has teetered from one calamity to another

In total he presided over just 27 games, managing only 14 wins.

While there was the odd high point - like April's 3-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie - they were outnumbered by a series of nightmare results as he failed at any point to record three successive wins.

Their 5-1 loss to rivals Celtic in the final Old Firm clash of last season was the club's worst ever derby performance at Ibrox while Caixinha also presided over Gers' first home defeat to Aberdeen in a quarter of a century with May's 2-1 defeat.

Some were surprised to see him survive his first two games of this season when the Glasgow giants were dumped out of the Europa League by Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn.

His judgement on transfer matters was also called into question at times. First he allowed highly-rated Scotland international Barrie McKay to join Mark Warburton - the man he inherited the Ibrox hot-seat from - at Nottingham Forrest for a meagre £500,000 sum, before deciding to shell out almost £2.5million on Carlos Pena.

The Mexican international was expected to provide Caixinha's new-look Light Blues with a spark but has struggled to demonstrate any sign that was money well spent.

The onus of guiding Gers past a tricky trip to face Hearts at BT Murrayfield will once again fall on Graeme Murty. He was in charge for six games last term in the wake of Warburton's departure and even managed to secure a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park.

The bookmakers have already made former Forest boss Billy Davies the front-runner to land the post but the likes of Derek McInnes and Alex McLeish are also highly likely to come under consideration.