What is it with this guy? What is it with Caixinha that he comes out with this kind of nonsense at every press conference he attends? Barking dogs and caravans, the media put down to his being Portuguese instead of simply being a complete loony … what the Hell do they have to say about his latest one and his vampire analogy?
Addicted to winning like a vampire is addicted to blood.
“The vampires taste the flavour of the blood and they want more, they need it,” he said, starting to warm to his theme. “It’s the same with the competitive teams and clubs, competitive players and competitive managers. They like the way the blood tastes. I did it at Santos Laguna in Mexico and it’s like a sort of addiction, you know? People are addicted to smoking or eating good or playing sport. I am an addict to the win – that’s why I work so hard because my focus is to win.”
Perhaps that’s why he looks like someone who’s not had a good meal in a month. He’s on a starvation diet. He’s coming off the junk. His team has failed to win three matches in a row since he took over, and that was a while back now.
Look at the guy; he has the hollow cheekbones of someone who just walked out of a North Korean labour camp. He has the vacant look of someone who’s just caught his wife with another man. And he’s talking talking talking the most atrocious nonsense, nonstop (he made some ridiculous reference to cowboys in the presser as well) like a kid caught stealing in school and is frantically babbling, trying to talk his way out of it.
Desperation reeks from him. Top managers don’t talk about their addiction to winning, they just win. Game after game after game after game.
Brendan, in the aftermath of our cup semi-final, reminded the press that our team recently made history. “But we want to keep re-writing history,” he said without once referencing vampires, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, caravans or barking dogs. He sounded laid back. He sounded sane. He said it in the measured tones of a man whose team is on a 60 match domestic unbeaten run, with no clear end in sight. The Invincibles.
In the aftermath of their last match, at St Johnstone, were they were being comprehensively outplayed until the red card, Caixinha talked about how united everyone at the club was and how that had gotten the result. But we know that behind the scenes there is chaos. He praised the fans and did all this “best in the world” shtick; did he miss that for the full duration of the game they sang songs about being up to their knees in Catholic blood?
He loves blood though, so perhaps that’s okay.
But that whiff of anxiety could still be detected with every word that came out of his mouth. He is pandering now, because as I’m sure he’s well aware there’s little support left in the stands for him. Had they lost that game the knives would have been out. The next time he drops as much as a point they will be in his back before he can spit.
Fear stalks the halls at Ibrox. It is palpable every time one of them sits in front of the press. This week Caixinha flatly refused to take any questions on Kenny Miller, the darling of the media, a guy who sic’s gangland thugs on people and their families but somehow stays above the fray. What a gentleman. What a noble character. All I can say is, Caixinha better watch he doesn’t wake up with a bull’s head in his bed.
But everyone in their support and in the wider world knows that’s the talking point; Miller had been banished to the outer darkness and now, even after his agent has flamed the club in the papers, he’s back in training with the first team. If he starts today you’ll know who won and who lost the battle. If he doesn’t you’ll know it rumbles on.
Pedro’s nose for the red stuff is clearly better than mine but even I can smell blood in the air today at Hampden; the thing is, it’s not that of Motherwell. This Sevco team is full of itself and what it can do, but it’s not a good side. They are there for the taking.
Motherwell have the best forward outside of Celtic Park. St Johnstone would have beaten them in the last game but for their lack of firepower. The Steelmen have no such excuses. If they try to play football this game is theirs to lose.