Mark Hateley slams Mark Warburton over Rangers recruitment

Rangers legend Mark Hateley says Ibrox boss Pedro Caixinha faces a massive rebuilding job. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

Former Ibrox striker Hateley also said the scale of the rebuilding job now faced by the Portuguese was unprecedented.

Caixinha has taken the Ibrox reins at a time when champions Celtic are utterly dominant and he won’t be able to spend as much as Graeme Souness, Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat, Alex McLeish or even Ally McCoist.

The scattergun signing policy of Warburton and his chief scout, Frank McParland was blamed by Hateley for the poor squad.

He said: “Pedro has been involved in rebuilding teams in each of his last three jobs so he knows what it takes and what he needs to do even if the demands at Rangers are a lot higher.

“It’s win, win, win at Rangers and anything less than that is not good enough.

“The other major difficulty he has is the strength of Celtic because Brendan Rodgers will try to make them even stronger next season as they look to be a better side in Europe.

“That means it’s going to be difficult for everyone in Scottish football to compete but, if you’re the Rangers manager, you have to deal with it and you have to do something about it.

“Historically, if you are the Celtic manager or the Rangers manager you have to win trophies. If not you’re out the door, it’s as simple as that. I’m sure Pedro is fully aware of these facts.”

Caixinha will be hampered by the continued presence of Warburton signings such as Martyn Waghorn, Joe Garner, Andy Halliday, Jason Holt, Rob Kiernan and others as he attempts to revamp his squad on limited resources.

“The biggest problem for Pedro is what he has inherited; Mark Warburton’s recruitment was a failure,” said Hateley. “Without naming names, I think we could all see that there were players brought in who simply could not fit in at Rangers.

“Warburton also only had one plan and, as a coach, you need have Plan A, B, C and D when you go into a match.

“You have to be proactive and change a game before your opposite number changes things – and all of that was surprisingly poor. I thought Mark would have had more all-round knowledge of the game rather than be one-dimensional.

“Good coaches can see things happening and adapt. Look at Brendan Rodgers. He is proactive and makes changes when they are needed.”

However, it will be the signings he makes this summer which will make or break Caixinha at Ibrox.

“This is going to one of the most important transfer windows in Rangers’ history but I still think Pedro will need three of them to really build what he wants to build at Ibrox,” claimed Hateley.

“He will no doubt utilise the many contacts he has in Europe and beyond but if you rush in and maybe make some panic buys you often get things wrong.

“So I think he will also need the January window and summer next year before he has what he wants.”