Andy Halliday has claimed former Rangers attacker Carlos Pena would head to training reeking of booze during his ill-fated spell at Ibrox.

The player was signed by Pedro Caixinha who hailed him in a meeting with Kenny Miller as the 'Mexican Messi'. However it didn't take long for his teammates, Halliday included, to realise the type of character the Light Blues had on their hands - even after Caixinha warned he was "a bit crazy".

Pena would stroll in for training, Halliday says, stinking of alcohol. He told Si Ferry on Open Goal: "[Caixinha] pulled Kenny Miller in and said, 'We're signing this player from Mexico, he's the Mexican Messi. He's brilliant, top quality but he's a bit crazy, you need to look after him'. He was messy alright, this guy was the modern alcoholic. He would just come in stinking of bevvy all the time. Stinking of it.

"From the time he came in I was only there for maybe a month, but honestly he was always stinking of booze. I definitely never seen him as the Mexican Messi to be fair, in terms of training. But I wasn't really with him that long, he was just always stinking of booze."

Pena only made 14 appearances in all competitions for Rangers over a two-year spell and was farmed out on loan before being released. But despite his drinking habits, Halliday - now himself a free agent - praised his personality and admitted it was tough to stay angry at the Mexican. "His best pals at the time were the boys who spoke Portuguese, him, [Daniel] Candeias, Buffalo [Alfredo Morelos], [Eduardo] Herrera," Halliday added. 

"But I know he had a Spanish pal, I don't know if he was from Glasgow. And he had a taxi driver pal who did everything for him. I don't know who he went out with but it genuinely could've been a case of 20 bottles of Corona in the house because he'd come in stinking all the time.

"But he's a proper good guy. See, as I get older and try to be a bit more serious, but if someone was doing that now I would hate them, like 'Get a grip, you're playing for Rangers, a big club, sort yourself out'. But he was that nice that it was hard to hate him."