Former Rangers defender Fabio Cardoso has launched a blistering attack on how he was treated while at Ibrox as well as slamming the quality of football during his spell in Scotland.
The Portuguese centre back spent just over a year with the Light Blues, having joined back in 2017 from Vitoria Setubal while Pedro Caixinha was in charge, but having flopped in the first team, with just 18 appearances to his name, he had his contract torn up before moving on a free to Santa Clara this summer.
Speaking about his time in the Premiership, the 24-year-old was highly critical of how Rangers treated him and some of his team mates while they were left out injured, while insisted there was a dearth of quality among the club’s rivals in the division.
He told Porutuguese newspaper A Bola, as quoted by the Daily Record: “When I broke my nose, I’d been waiting for surgery for a long time because of the transition of managers and I felt that I and other colleagues were off for no good reason.
“I felt that I was disrespected and it was difficult not to be playing. I wanted to feel happy, to assert myself again. I didn’t play in the second half of the season which is the most important time.
“Things out there are not as easy as they seem. Scottish football is very physical. In my opinion, it doesn’t have as much quality as the Portuguese, with the exception of the greats like Celtic, Rangers and one or another team.
“Most teams don’t play football, it’s all based on the physical. It’s one thing to go to balls harder and to have the bad luck of injuring someone unintentionally, another thing – quite common in Scotland – is to be disloyal and mean.”
Opinion
If there was ever an interview which proved that Cardoso was not made for the cut and thrust of Scottish football, this is it. There is without a doubt a focus on the physical side of the game, with players often wanting to put the fear of god into their opponents with a crunching tackle or a slight bit of afters, and it certainly seems to have worked on the Portuguese defender. However, Rangers’ alleged treatment of him and his teammates when they were suffering with injury is nothing short of embarrassing. There is no way the club should have allowed their off field issues with the manager to take precedence over the health and well being of their players. That is something which needs to be looked at, although those at Ibrox will be hoping they are not forced into another managerial change for some time with Steven Gerrard performing admirably.