PEDRO Caixinha was today warned he must retain a Scottish spine to his Rangers team if he wants to end an agonising six year drought without a major trophy.

Caixinha, who took over from Mark Warburton as manager back in March, is currently assessing his personnel and deciding which players he wants to keep at Ibrox and which members of his squad he wants to offload in the summer.

He has extended Kenny Miller’s contract for another season – the 37-year-old forward has signed a new deal that keeps him at his boyhood heroes until 2018.

However, many of the striker’s Gers team mates have uncertain futures under their new boss in the wake of the record 5-1 defeat they suffered at the hands of their city rivals Celtic in a Ladbrokes Premiership match at home on Saturday.

The Portuguese coach has worked in mainland Europe, Central America and Asia during his lengthy career in the dugout and is sure to be scouring the globe in search of new signings who can improve his team.

But he has also been linked with Aberdeen midfielders Ryan Jack and Kenny McLean, former Falkirk defender Will Vaulks and Norwich City men Graham Dorrans and Steven Naismith.

And Gordan Petric, the Serbian centre half who helped the Glasgow club to complete Nine-In-A-Row 20 years ago this week, has told him it is vital that he has a nucleus of Scottish players in order to succeed.

Petric joined a lavishly-assembled squad that contained Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup – two of the greatest players in the history of the Ibrox club - when he signed for Rangers from Dundee United back in 1995.

However, he feels it was the home-grown players who were instrumental in Walter Smith’s side completing their record-equalling run of consecutive Scottish titles over the following two seasons.

The defender believes it was characters like Ian Durrant, Andy Goram, Richard Gough, Ally McCoist and Charlie Miller, to name just a handful, who helped to create a tightly-knit dressing room.

The former Yugoslavian internationalist also credits the Scots lads with ensuring the foreign imports understood the standards expected of them by the supporters at that time and were met by on a weekly basis.

“When I walked into the dressing room at Rangers after joining there were players like Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup,” he said. “But a big plus for the club at that time was the Scottish guys they had around about them.

“We had Richard Gough, Ally McCoist, Andy Goram, Iain Ferguson, Alec Cleland, Charlie Miller, Alan McLaren, Gordon Durie, Ian Durrant. Having them there was a big plus.

“They helped to create a great atmosphere in the dressing room and understood what was required to play for a club like Rangers. They knew that every game must be won and every trophy must be won as well.

“If Rangers are going to be a stronger team in the future, if they are going to be as dominant as they were back then, they have to have those sort of big personalities in the dressing room.

“We had a group of players who were Scottish and who knew all about Rangers and they made sure we all performed to the standard which was expected of us

“Then you also had Walter Smith, Archie Knox and Doddsy (first team coach Davie Dodds). They all had Scottish blood and they knew about Scottish football and they understood British football. I learned a lot from Walter and Archie. They had a very good knowledge of the game.

“Celtic were the same. They were a very good team and had Scottish players in their dressing room. If you don’t have Scottish players there you don’t understand the club. These are the players who help the overseas players when they come in and make the club.”

Many expensive signings have come to Glasgow over the years and failed to live up to expectations and justify the size of their transfer fee and Petric feels that having Scottish players who can help them settle is invaluable.

“Nemanja Vidic played for Red Star Belgrade in Serbia and then Spartak Moscow and then won a £7 million move to Manchester United. But at Old Trafford he found that he had to produce every single week. He had to adapt to a different philosophy and learn to understand the demands of his new club.

"I think that shows that having players who know about a club is as important as the quality of the players that you bring in."