Le Guen and Ferguson: There Can Be Only One (It’s A Kind Of Tragic)
January 3rd, 2007 by Fraser CampbellA nice uneventful festive period at Ibrox then eh?
It would appear that our manager has cleverly managed to mask our persistently erratic form by having the barney to end all barneys with Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson.
Say what you want about his decision to drop the fans favourite, but no-one?s talking about the five points dropped to Inverness CT and St Mirren in recent matches anymore are they?
On the face of it, it?s an awful decision. With the team lurching from passable to pathetic, what do you do? Drop your best player and the one guy who always looks as if he cares? Risky to say the least.
It?s easy to see both sides of this argument.
Barry obviously feels that Paul le Guen is the wrong man for the Rangers job. He hates to see the club he loves failing so miserably and he has been more than forthcoming in his views.
Le Guen on the other hand, cannot have an agent provocateur as club captain and had to make an example of a guy who was, according to him at least, badmouthing him and defying his orders.
So who?s right here? Unless anarchy is to prevail, there can be only one answer.
There can only be one boss, and it should be the guy appointed by the chairman, not the club captain - however much he loves the club.
Powerful player clich?s have undermined Rangers in the past and it was obvious the same thing was happening again.
Look, I absolutely adore Barry Ferguson. I think he?s a brilliant player and a Rangers great. But if it?s true that he?s responsible for turning a faction of players against his manager and that he has wilfully defied tactical instructions in matches, he has to go.
That is unacceptable of any player, particularly the club captain, who should be helping his manager batten down the hatches instead of trying to get him fired.
Ferguson is highly unlikely to be offered a way back but if he wants to save his Rangers career, he should button his lip and get down to proving in training why he?s so lauded by the fans.
For Le Guen?s part, he has to think about why he keeps falling out with the players. This is the third first team player he?s had a public row with this season, and that in itself is not good enough.
He also has to look at the big picture, which has been obscured by this latest fiasco.
Several quality players are required to move this Rangers team on from utter mediocrity.
Dropping Barry Ferguson is obviously a pivotal point in Paul le Guen?s Rangers career.
But it is what he does to improve matters on the park in the wake of this decision that will decide his future.
Fans calling for the Le Guen?s head because he has dropped a popular player are missing the point.
If team performance improves dramatically in the second half of the season, all will be forgiven; if it doesn?t his adversary may well out-last him at the club.
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January 3rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
“Several quality players are required to move this Rangers team on from utter mediocrity.”
They certainly are and with investment from boardroom level looking unlikely has Le Guen engineered a way to dispose of Rangers most saleable asset with a minimum of fan backlash to fund new signings?
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Well branding him a moaning git is hardly likely to make him more salable, but yes I think the timing is important.
If you are going to dump your best player, it’s a good idea to do it when some teams with lots of cash are struggling in the Premiership.
I’ve heard Villa, Newcastle and Everton are interested so far today, but don’t be surprised if Wigan, Charlton and West Ham come calling. I reckon an offer of around ?3m will twist Sir David’s arm.
The question for Rangers fans though is “…will that money be wasted?”, as most of the summer kitty seems to have been on utter dud Filip Sebo.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
A case of ‘its me or the dog’ I think!
Le Guen seems to have put his head on the block, and now its been chopped off!