Glasgow Rangers have come a long way in just five years, with the club emerging from a terrible spell under former manager Pedro Caixinha to appointing Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard in the expectation that he would turn the Ibrox side around.

Fast forward three years later and Rangers had won their 55th league title and first Premiership crown since 2011 in what marked a remarkable rise from the ashes of administration and demotion in 2012.

The Caixinha era was about as bad as it got for Rangers, with a woeful European loss to Progres Niederkorn to signing duds such as Carlos Pena, Dalcio, and Fabio Cardoso, who all couldn’t get up to speed in Scotland.

Arguably his worst buy, however, in terms of money per goal, was for Mexican striker Eduardo Herrera, who arrived at the club in the summer of 2017 for £1.5m.

Caixinha made big howler on Herrera

The Portuguese manager was looking to build a squad that would be capable of taking on the Celtic juggernaut under Brendan Rodgers, who had just won the treble undefeated the season before.

His grand plan to get Rangers back to the top of the Scottish football tree didn’t exactly work out, and Herrera’s form proved he was a colossal waste of money.

The Mexican found the net just twice in his 24 appearances for the Light Blues, costing the club £750k per goal, and with the Gers not having the luxury of deep European runs to bolster the Ibrox finances, every penny counted.

Gerrard sent him on loan to Santos Laguna for the 2018/2019 season, with the Englishman clearly planning ahead without the nine-cap Mexican in his plans.

Herrera, on a reported £20k-p/w at the club, was still contracted until 2020, although the club were looking at a deal to terminate his contract. The whole saga finally ended in January 2020 when he joined Puebla FC.

Thankfully, transfers like this soon became rare under the former England captain and the club soon emerged from their rivals decade long shadow.

The Caixinha era proved to be costly both on and off the pitch and it’s a period that is best left forgotten.