Pedro Caixinha appeared at a press conference yesterday which was positively barmy. It’s not the first time.
He spoke like a guy who is already feeling the pressure. He’s just in the door and he is hectoring, threatening, bullying. He’s also trying to be charming, but the mask has already slipped and you can see what lies beneath it.
Pedro Caixinha is not a bad guy, he’s a very demanding one though. You find people like him in every major industry. In sport, his kind have risen to the very top; the hard task masters, the “no nonsense merchants”, the guys who push other people to the extremes. More of them have sunk without a trace, because most of them aren’t great leaders.
You can tell a great leader; they don’t rule by fear.
Caixinha talked about respect the other day, and good leaders understand that it’s a two way street. He wants it before he gives it; that’s a one way street, whether he sees it like that or not. Jock Stein was a leader, a man who commanded respect.
But he also knew how to give it, that a man has to bend a little, to give others a little flexibility, to let them be themselves. You only have to look at the way he handled the pre-season trip to America in our glorious grand slam season; he turned it into a great holiday, a bonding experience, he mixed with his players.
It’s why Jock was not just respected; he was loved.
Pedro Caixinha is not going to be loved, that’s for damned sure. I don’t think, at this rate, he’s going to be terribly respected either. It’s not a good start. He has already split his dressing room. He hasn’t lost it yet, but he is going to.
When a new manager starts at a club it is a good idea if he comes in with fresh ideas, but it’s a bad one to try and change everything, instantly, tearing up the rule book, making people do things they’re not used to, asking them to go further than others had before. You need time, and trust, to do that stuff. He has not had the first and so is unable to properly establish the second. He’s already making a series of epic mistakes.
But it’s the language that he uses which should scare Sevco fans the most; it’s aggressive, uncompromising, it’s that of a man who’s only motivating tool is fear. Good managers very infrequently read their players the riot act; this guy had to be asked not to before the Celtic game even started last weekend … what does that tell you? There are only so many times you can shout at people before it loses any impact it has at the outset; eventually they zone out, and when that happens you’ve lost them for good.
If he loses these guys early – and some of them have already cut loose, and his threat to find the dressing room “mole” will spread paranoia through the club – then it’s over. None of his ideas will get across. If the dressing room splits into factions then the team itself will simply crumble under the least pressure and it’s Game Over.
Rumours of discontent in the squad are already rife, so much so that even the media can’t ignore them, and that prompted the articles of yesterday and the bizarre press conference that followed, in which Caixinha refused point blank to change course.
The blame doesn’t simply lie with him. I’ve written here about the means by which he was hired; they are unconventional to say the least. The blame lies with the people who chose this guy out of everyone else they might have had. If this goes arse over head – and it has all the elements that end with flaming wreckage on the runway – they ought to be the ones to carry the can, before Pedro himself has even cleared out his desk.
He’s on a three year deal. My advice would be to enjoy it whilst it lasts though.
This one is going to end quickly. You can see it a mile away.