There are rumours circulating out there today that Sevco players have given their manager a brand new nickname; according to online chatter they’ve taken to calling him The Fraud. This is quite astonishing if true, and it shows that all is definitely not well at Auchenhowie.
And it gets worse for the Peepul, because rumours also suggest that there was a major training ground bust up, and shouting match, between Pedro and the squad’s leader-in-waiting, the alleged head of the WhatsApp Conspiracy, one Kenny Miller.
I’m told their relationship is now beyond repair.
This is bad news for Sevco fans on any number of fronts; Miller’s days at Ibrox look to be numbered, but he will resist any effort to terminate his contract or move him on, and any attempt to force him out of the club by relegating him to the reserves or such like is likely to be met with a full-on dressing room revolt of those who are still part of the Miller clique.
One member of that group is the current captain, Lee Wallace, who reports suggest will pay for that decision with the loss of the armband. This would be the clearest sign of all that Caixinha has no respect for those at the club when he arrived or what their roles previously were; Wallace is a bona fide hero to much of the Sevco support for the way he handled the contractual issue when the club was formed from the detritus of Rangers’ liquidation.
Wallace was one of the only senior players to agree to move to the new club.
He has showed astonishing commitment to the Ibrox cause, setting aside his international career and probably missing out on a good deal of money. It’s not for nothing that subsequent Ibrox bosses have decided that’s the material of which leaders, captains, are made.
Sacrifice for the team.
Dedication to the jersey.
None of that seems to have influenced Caixinha who only sees dressing room factions and seeks to punish those not firmly on his side of the fence. Miller and Wallace are amongst a shrinking number of players who were there last year and are being pushed aside for The Assorted Diddies Of Latin Football. “News” – and I use that word in the most sarcastic way – that Candelas scored a “wonder free kick” in training is cutting no ice whatsoever with fans who’ve actually seen him play, in the two leg nightmare against the Luxembourgers.
And it’s not going down well either inside the dressing room or in the wider club, especially when those watching realise young Barrie McKay was essentially shoved out the door as fast as Caixinha could find a buyer in order to accommodate this guy.
At the same time, all is not well with the pursuit of Jamie Walker; voices inside Ibrox are being raised over that one with some asking if he’s necessarily a better player than the kid they just allowed to go to Forest for a nominal fee.
Directors may well balk at shelling out the £1 million Hearts want when they look at the managers signing “policy” and see no evidence of a plan.
Things ain’t good over there right now.