Josh Windass has revealed he knew ex-Rangers striker Joe Garner was heading out of Ibrox after Pedro Caixinha forced him to cancel his £30,000 stag do to Las Vegas due to “ridiculous” pre-season plans.
The Wigan playmaker, who left Gers in the summer, explained how Garner was fuming after Caixinha had asked his players to report for pre-season earlier than usual before the start of the 2017-18 season.
Windass told Simon Ferry on Open Goal: “I’d say he (Caixinha) was quite unapproachable. Joe Garner had a stag do in Vegas and Pedro’s given us the pre-season dates and we were in ridiculously early.
“I can’t remember when it was, but it was unheard of. We got like nine days off in the summer.
“Garner is like ‘I’ve got my stag do, I’m gonna have to go see him’ so he knocks on his door and says ‘gaffer would I be able to get a few days off for my stag do in Vegas’. I think he had paid like £30,000 for all of his mates.
“Pedro said ‘I don’t care, you come and train’ and he comes down and all the lads are p****** themselves, but he’s fuming, absolutely fuming. After that, I was thinking, ‘he’s not going to be here after next season 100 per cent’.”
OPINION
Caixinha’s sledgehammer man-management was always likely to lead to dressing room mutiny, and so it proved. The Portugese man o’ war saw himself as tough, forthright and clear-headed. Instead, the players though he was stubborn, bad-tempered and unfair. His nine-day pre-season instruction was poorly conceived and backfired badly. Sure, the Scottish season began in late June, and he was keen for the players to get up to speed, but his methods needed to get the best out of the men at his disposal, not send them running off to their agents demanding the exit door. Striker Garner eventually got a move that summer to Ipswich Town, and he has played regularly for the Championship club, scoring 10 goals in 32 matches. At Rangers, he had a similar record, with 10 strikes from 34 appearances. Has he been missed? Occasionally, yes. Garner’s no-holds-barred commitment up front made him a handful for SPL defences, although his hair-trigger temper also frequently got him into hot water.