In an age in which gambling has become the norm in which we are bombarded with adverts urging us to take a flutter perhaps we should not be at all surprised that Rangers have got in on the act.
Already having their famous shirts emblazoned with the 32Red the Ibrox club’s decision to recruit Pedro Caixinha should most definitely be considered a massive punt, one which had better work out for Dave King and co or else they will face the full wrath of an already sceptical support.
Frankly on paper the recruitment of the 46 year old Portuguese appears a baffling one – this is a guy who other than a successful two year period in charge of the Mexican outfit Santos Laguna has had a very patchy career in football management.
Totally devoid of any experience of Scottish football nor being in the hot seat of any club the size of Rangers the odds on Caixinha being the success the Rangers fans crave for must be extremely high and one must seriously wonder as to why the Glasgow giants have opted to hire him.
He may have been mightily impressive when interviewed by Non-Executive Director Graeme Park, Managing Director Stewart Robertson and Director of Finance and Administration Andrew Dickson but for the club to recruit this unknown Portuguese who is already more famous for tackling bulls is one hell of a gamble.
The appointment of his predecessor was certainly another risk – a former city trader turned football manager – but for the Glasgow club to throw all their chips behind a man not even serious students of the game had heard of only a matter of two weeks ago seems pretty extraordinary.
And fact he is coming to Scotland at a time in which Brendan Rodgers has Celtic on a totally another level throws further doubts as to why Rangers have sufficient faith in Caixinha when the most obvious candidate to help stem their old rivals tide was much more closer to home.
The failure of the Ibrox club to sound out Derek McInnes is utterly baffling, but they have made their bed now and as mentioned previously the appointment of Caixinha had better work out or else Dave King will face the full wrath of the support.
Both Ally McCoist and Warburton ultimately failed so it is imperative for the absentee landlord of the Govan club that this is a success.
And for Rangers success is significantly closing the gap on Celtic to the extent they can be considered serious contenders for the title again.
To achieve that Caixinha has to drastically uproot the current playing squad which is overloaded with below average players lacking the necessary grit and passion which is a necessity attribute for anyone to possess to succeed at Ibrox.
It will be fascinating indeed to see how he goes about his task – without the financial muscle many of his predecessors had at their disposal it is likely he will be forced into utilising any potential scouting networks as well as ensuring the club’s recent below par record of introducing half decent players from the youth academy is reversed.
What will also be of great interest will be what style of play will be the most favoured, by all accounts Caixinha likes to adopt an attacking philosophy with an emphasis on strength but not an over reliance on defending which will no doubt be met with concern by a fan base frustrated by failure on the man he succeeds to ever deal with effectively.
An aim of unveiling Caixinha alongside Ross Wilson as the new Director of Football at the start of the week was the target of the Rangers board.
Wilson’s decision to decline the offer has left the club behind the eight ball and are left scrambling around to pinpoint the man they wish to take on the DOF role which presents the peculiar scenario in which any potential new appointment may be of the opinion Caixinha is not the man they have confidence in.
But that’s for another day.
24 hours from now Caixinha will most likely be getting his head down scrutinizing what he can do to help turn around the fortunes of a team in the immediate aftermath of another mauling at the hands of their old foes from the other side of the city.
He had better be prepared for a job which many others simply could not handle – you can bet on that.