IT is the dreaded hat-trick for any manager but when the first two pieces fall into place, the third inevitably follows. Lose the dressing room, lose the games, and lose your job.

Pedro Caixinha is the latest, but he won’t be the last, to pay the price. As he reflects on his seven months at Rangers, only he will know if he would have done anything differently.

For many Gers fans, the final acts of the Caixinha drama brought back memories of Paul Le Guen’s Ibrox exit. For 2007, read 2017. For Barry Ferguson, read Kenny Miller.

Read more: Next Rangers boss can't make the same mistake as Pedro Caixinha and sideline Kenny Miller, says Ian Murray

A decade ago, the Frenchman famously fell out with Ferguson and stripped him of the captaincy. Within days, he was sacked.

This term, it was Miller that was banished from the first team squad as his relationship with Caixinha broke down. Within weeks, he was sacked.

The respective battles with two high-profile players came amid mounting pressure from the stands as Le Guen and Caixinha struggled to produce performances or reel off results.

“I think it is a similar sort of circumstances but complete opposites at the same time,” former Ibrox defender Ian Murray told SportTimes.

“There are a couple of parallels in terms of a foreign manager and an experienced player in the squad and results haven’t gone for them. But you are talking ten years on.

“I think these things have happened for years and years, it is not just a case of it being Rangers with foreign managers and experienced players.

“It happens at every club at every level. A new manager comes in and, for whatever reason, they want to change it and ultimately the manager is the boss.

Read more: Alan Archibald calls appeals procedure a 'shambles' after Rangers' Ryan Jack cleared to face Partick Thistle​

“If Pedro had won the games and Paul Le Guen had won the games, nobody would be talking about it.

“When results aren’t good, then it becomes a huge talking point. It is a gamble that a manager takes.”

The risks that Le Guen and Caixinha took with their actions ultimately backfired on them and the pair will be remembered for all the wrong reasons by the Light Blue legions.

Many supporters decry the so-called ‘player power’ when a manager leaves under a dark cloud but, ultimately, the results speak for themselves.

Caixinha’s side beat Hamilton and St Johnstone without Miller but the defeat to Motherwell and draw with Kilmarnock were blows that he could not recover from.

The Portuguese needed his players to perform to keep him in a job. Once that two-way faith was eroded, the clock was ticking.

Read more: Hamilton manager Martin Canning doesn't think Derek McInnes Rangers speculation will affect Aberdeen

“It does happen, of course, and it doesn’t take many to be honest,” Murray said on the theory of a manager ‘losing the dressing room’.

“It doesn’t need seven or eight, it can only take two or three. If you lose them and you don’t get results then the pressure is on. It happens everywhere.

“It is especially hard at a big club because you are under scrutiny all the time and in the goldfish bowl.

“If Rangers had beaten Motherwell and scored the penalty against Kilmarnock, then Pedro is probably still in a job. It shows the fine lines in football and ultimately he has paid with his job.

“People are saying it was the wrong appointment and a stupid appointment, but if he had done well he would have been hailed as a great success.

“It is very easy to point fingers and criticise but nobody goes into a job wanting to fail and nobody picks a manager wanting them to fail. These things happen.

“Once the man is in place, whoever it is, the fans just want to see the team winning.

“Everyone has got their opinion before and after, but during it everyone – the players, the board, the fans – want the team to win.

“When things aren’t working, there is only one man that goes and that is the manager unfortunately.”

Read more: Next Rangers boss can't make the same mistake as Pedro Caixinha and sideline Kenny Miller, says Ian Murray

The appointment of Caixinha raised many eyebrows both inside and outside of Ibrox and the fears over the 46-year-old would be realised sooner rather than later.

Caixinha added Portuguese quartet Bruno Alves, Fabio Cardoso, Daniel Candeias and Dalcio to his squad this summer. While Colombian Alfredo Morelos has shown his promise, Mexican pair Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera have failed to justify their price tags so far.

Le Guen’s signing policy was just as profligate, with Sasa Papac the only one of his recruits that would make a lasting impression in Light Blue.

And Murray admits there are no guarantees that players and managers will settle on these shores and in Scottish football when they make moves from abroad.

He said: “The foreign guys that come in, they are different, totally different. It is a cultural thing.

“If we go abroad, for example, we have to adapt to their culture but when they come to us we don’t say they have to adapt to us. It is always the other way round, which is interesting.

“For instance, if a British manager went to Spain and didn’t adapt to their culture, he wouldn’t last very long because it is different over there.

“But then when we have managers come over here, we say that we have to adapt to them, which is totally hypocritical of what is said about our guys going abroad. I think that is something we need to look at a little bit.”

Read more: Alan Archibald calls appeals procedure a 'shambles' after Rangers' Ryan Jack cleared to face Partick Thistle​

Like Ferguson with the appointment of Ian Durrant as caretaker then the return of Walter Smith, a change in the dugout meant a change in fortunes for Miller.

Handed the captain’s armband by Graeme Murty, the 37-year-old was given the support of the Light Blue legions and his team-mates as he inspired Rangers to a 3-1 win.

Now the next Ibrox boss has to get the most out of the squad that he will inherit and ensure the Gers are a unit on and off the park.

“It is always tough for a manager and in that situation I think it comes down to the player and their make-up and personality,” Murray said.

“Some players if they are not playing sulk, some work harder and are determined to get back in the team. Everyone has a different way of reacting to things.

“It is hard when you have a few players sulking, it is very difficult to get them motivated for training.

“It is very complex and not as easy as people think. It is not ‘just put him in the Reserves’.

“You can’t do that to everybody, it doesn’t work. Sometimes you need these guys to help the ones that are playing.

“With Kenny, he is not one I would think would initiate anything. If anything, if he is not playing then he is still the same, he still wants to take the lead and if there guys playing ahead of him he will help them do well. He is not the type of guy that wishes anything bad on anyone.”