Rangers: Pedro Caixinha sacked as manager after board meeting

Rangers have sacked manager Pedro Caixinha after seven months in charge.

Coach Graeme Murty takes over on an interim basis, as he did before Caixinha's appointment in March.

Caixinha, 46, won 14 of his 26 games, with assistant manager Helder Baptista and coaches Pedro Malta and Jose Belman also leaving Ibrox.

The decision was made at a board meeting after Wednesday's 1-1 home draw with Kilmarnock, which left Rangers fourth in the Scottish Premiership.

On Sunday, Rangers lost their League Cup semi-final to Motherwell at Hampden.

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"The priority is to appoint a new manager as quickly as possible, but the board will take as much time as is necessary to secure the right person capable of representing Rangers and providing the brand of football supporters rightly expect," read a club statement.

The Ibrox side are eight points behind league leaders Celtic after 10 games.

After the draw with Kilmarnock, Caixinha said he was determined to remain in charge. But his 229-day reign makes him the shortest serving manager in the Glasgow club's history.

In April, Rangers suffered their biggest ever home loss to Celtic, suffering a 5-1 humbling on their way to a third-place finish last season.

This campaign started with a shock Europa League qualifying defeat by Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn in July.

Murty was in charge for six games last season, winning three, losing twice and drawing one

Caixinha agreed a three-year deal with Rangers, arriving from Al-Gharafa in Qatar, having also managed in Mexico and his homeland.

He signed 11 players over the summer, including experienced Portugal defender Bruno Alves and Scotland midfielder Graham Dorrans.

"Results have been disappointing and not commensurate with the level of investment that was made available," added the club statement.

Former Scotland full-back Murty, 42, oversaw six matches following the departure of Mark Warburton in February, including a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park, before returning to his role as development squad head coach.

Analysis

BBC Scotland's Tom English

The big surprise is not that Pedro Caixinha has lost his job as Rangers manager. The remarkable thing is that he ever got it in the first place.

His track record did not support such an appointment. The only thing that Caixinha seemed adept at was talking a good game rather than delivering one.

Over the course of his brief reign the headlines he created were more about the bombast of his words rather than the performance of his side. Eventually, the board that took such an unnecessary gamble in giving him the job, admitted that there was no future with him in charge.

Those men who recommended his appointment to the board are director Graeme Park, managing director Stewart Robinson and director of football administration Andrew Dickson. Having assessed their now ex-manager, a period of self-reflection is in order.

This has been a desperate mess from start to finish.